In this celebration of the political world, Bernard Crick asserts that politics, with its compromises and power struggles, remains the only tested alternative to government by coercion. For Crick, politics is messy and complex; his book defends it against those who would identify it with (and reduce it to) ideology, democracy, nationalism, or technology. This fourth edition has been updated to include an assessment of the revolutions in 1989 in Eastern Europe. It also examines current situations in Northern Ireland, Israel and Palestine, and South Africa.