Dictionary of Political analysis

This dictionary defines and discusses several hundred terms com monly used in the literature of modern political analysis. Its prime target is the undergraduate student, particularly the beginning student who may be encountering the sometimes confusing language of political science in his first course in the field. For such a student, this dictionary can foster an early awareness of the need for precise expression and definition in political science and enable him to move with greater con fidence through the vocabulary of the discipline. It should also serve teachers, political analysts, and graduate students as a handy reference to key concepts in political science.

Existing teaching tools do not always take account of the student's unfamiliarity with the specialized language of political studies. All too often in texts, key terms are left undefined, or partially defined, so the student gains at best a hazy impression and at worst an erroneous notion of what is meant. Few beginning students, moreover, possess a well developed sense of the importance of definitional precision as a basis for sound scholarship. A great deal stands to be gained if students are in troduced to this requirement at the very outset of their college ex perience. Political science must surely be made "relevant," but the introductory course should also demonstrate that clarity of thought and expression, key ingredients of sound scholarship, are among the im portant relevancies in college and in life. The Dictionary of Political Analysis is addressed to that need.