Modern government

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.