000			02977nam a2200181Ia 4500
999			_c8371 _d8371
005			20220221154416.0
008			200202s9999 xx 000 0 und d
082			_a320.3 Blo
100			_aBlondel, Jean
245		0	_aIntroduction to comparative Govt
260			_aLondon
260			_bWeidenfeld & Nicoloson
260			_c1969
300			_a557 p.
520			_aIt is now a generation since Herman Finer wrote his Theory and Practice of Modern Government and since Carl Friedrich wrote Constitutional Government and Democracy: both were classics of the time of the Second World War and immediate postwar period. They concentrated, and they could not do other- wise, on the study of the governments of what were to become the Western and Eastern worlds, which constituted at the time almost the 'only' parts of the contemporary world. This was already wider than the scope of previous studies, of which Bryce's Modern Democracies is perhaps the finest. Before 1914, liberal democratic government was slowly becoming the rule: the world seemed to lean towards democracy through constitutional advance and the gradual opening up of societies. But the hope ended when the First World War started the 'era of tyrannies' and a dichotomy, almost of a manichaean type, led to reflections on the frailty of constitutional rule and to an examina- tion of the conditions and prospects of party dictatorships. With the 1950s, the dichotomy had in turn to be abandoned: the whole world became the scene and with over fifty new nations, liberal and dictatorial rule began to be combined in half-way experiments. 'Development' seemed overwhelming and governments appeared conditioned, not by how they should be run, but by what they could achieve. The relative character of liberal and dictatorial government became a leitmotiv and both older models seemed unsatisfactory; but, for a time, no new theory replaced these old models. 'Hyperfactualism' grew, while dis- content characterized the study of government; only at the periphery, and mainly in relation to parties, did theory continue to progress. At last this discontent led to new models, perhaps grandiose and overambitious, but able to take into account both new and old countries. Now that over a decade has elapsed since Easton's Political System and Almond's first formulation of a structural-functional approach, it becomes once more possible to consider comparative government generally, but this time on a world-wide basis, and to place liberal constitutionalism and dictatorial rule within this broad context. It is to this object that this text is devoted; but it is an Introduction, as the gap between the 'grand theory' provided by the new approach and the necessary middle-range developments is still only partly filled and such a relatively short book cannot do more than consider very generally most middle-range problems.
650			_aPolitics And Govt.
942			_cB _2ddc