Modern government
- 3rd ed.
- Princeton D. Van Nostrand. 1966
- 756 p. : ill.
This work is intended, as were the previous editions, as a textbook for courses in comparative government at the college and university level. The courses envisioned are those of a basic, general, and comprehensive nature. A country-by-country approach is employed, but considerable attention is given to comparing various aspects of the governments studied with each other as well as with that of the United States. The book is broader in scope than most of the texts in the field, including not only European governments but certain selected governments of the American and Asian areas. Because our political heritage comes largely from western Europe, the governments of England, France, and Germany are treated with the greatest emphasis. However, the very important role being played by non-Western nations in international relationships is recognized, and those sections deal- ing with the Soviet Union, Japan, and India have been enlarged from the second edition. In fact, this edition attempts to give added emphasis to the governments of such "small" but significant states as Canada and the coun- tries of Latin America. The institutional approach to the study of government, basic to earlier editions of this book, has been maintained in the third edition but has been augmented, where appropriate, by the use of devices and techniques of the behavioral sciences. The institutional approach considers the organi zation of governments, their constitutional basis, their sources of legitimacy, and their methods of operation. As used here, it seeks to understand the workings of governments by an analysis of their various components. Still widely used in the study of comparative governments, this approach is fre quently supplemented by new methods being developed by the behavioral sciences in an effort to achieve greater precision and greater possibility for prediction. The attempt has been made in this revision to use the newer methods and techniques as well as the proved methods of the institutionalists whenever these might contribute to better understanding. Care has been taken to sustain the strong emphasis placed on bibli- ographies located at the ends of the seven subdivisions of the book, and each has been revised and brought up to date. Texts of constitutions are not in- cluded, not only because they are readily available elsewhere, but also be- cause some governments, such as that of the Soviet Union, operate without meaningful reference to their constitutions.