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A Novel Approach to Politics Douglas A. Van Belle

A Novel Approach to Politics By Douglas A. Van Belle

A Novel Approach to Politics by Douglas A. Van Belle

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Summary

This book continues to introduce students to politics through captivating examples taken from popular culture, and this Fourth Edition has been brought fully up to date with recent events, elections, current policy debates and international happenings.

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A Novel Approach to Politics Summary

A Novel Approach to Politics: Introducing Political Science through Books, Movies, and Popular Culture by Douglas A. Van Belle

A Novel Approach to Politics turns the conventional textbook wisdom on its head. This is a textbook students want to read.

With this new edition, Van Belle brings the book fully up-to-date with recent events, elections, current policy debates, international happenings, and other assorted intergalactic matters. Van Belle adds a wealth of new and recent movies and books to the text, as he illustrates key concepts in political science through examples that captivate students. Employing a wide range of references from 1984 to Game of Thrones to House of Cards, students are given a very solid grounding in institutions, ideology, and economics.

The textbook bits and pieces are still there to aid students-chapter objectives, chapter summaries, bolded key terms, and discussion questions. Retained for this edition, ''The Thinkers in Boxes feature calls out pivotal political philosophers, theorists, and assorted hipsters.

A Novel Approach to Politics Reviews

A Novel Approach to Politics' major strength is its readability. Students enjoy its irreverent approach as well as the references to various films, TV shoes, and novels. The important theories are clearly presented in a format that most students can grasp reading on their own.
-- Richard Gutierrez
The greatest strengths of A Novel Approach to Politics are its humor and accessibility. Students love reading it.
-- Matthew A. Childers
The genius of A Novel Approach to Politics is that Van Belle uses humor and pop culture to engage the reluctant student of politics. Its broad themes and arrangement of chapters allows plenty of freedom to add my own unique spin to the material.
-- Sherri S. Replogle
Van Belle's book is easily accessible to college freshman and sophomores. It is written in a conversational, witty, at times sarcastic tone that appeals to young people.
-- John A. Shively

About Douglas A. Van Belle

Douglas A. Van Belle is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. He was the first person to have served as the president of both the Foreign Policy Analysis and the International Communication research sections in the International Studies Association. He has also served as the Editor-in-Chief of International Studies Perspectives and Foreign Policy Analysis and has conducted extensive research on media systems and information flows in international politics. He created the press freedom data set that precedes this study, to examine the effect of media freedom on international conflict, as exemplified by Press Freedom and the Democratic Peace (Journal of Peace Research). That initial analysis was expanded to complete Press Freedom and Global Politics (Praeger), which provides the foundation for the extension conducted here. Studies of popular media and political theory led to the undergraduate textbook, A Novel Approach to Politics, which is now in its 4th edition. Also, before returning to the analysis of media freedom with this project, he conducted a series of studies examining the relationship between information flows, disasters, and foreign aid, including Media, Bureaucracies and Foreign Aid (Palgrave: With Potter and Rioux).

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introducing the Ancient Debate: The Ideal versus the Real The Dollhouse Fiction as a Tool for Exploring Politics Utopias in Fiction and Politics Ideologies What Is Politics? What Is Political Science? Chapter 2: Why Government? Security, Anarchy, and Some Basic Group Dynamics A Model for the Emergence of Cooperation: Bobsville Collective Action Security Power Anarchy The Context of Hierarchy Alliances Groups and Group Identities Chapter 3: Governing Society: We Know Who You Are Leadership Benefits The Panopticon Collective Action, Revolution, and the Use of Force Legitimacy and Government Control Chapter 4: Government's Role in the Economy: The Offer You Can't Refuse The Tragedy of the Commons Karl Marx-Student of Capitalism? Socialism The Yin and Yang of Capitalism and Socialism Chapter 5: Structures and Institutions Structures or Institutions? Human Nature and Political Institutions The Reality of Political Institutions SimGovernment Chapter 6: El Grande Loco Casa Blanca: The Executive (in Bad Spanish) Oh Captain, My Captain The Scorpion King on Grandpa's Farm Kings and Presidents The Democratic Executive Chapter 7: The Confederacy of Dunces: The Legislative Function (Not in Bad Spanish) Boring History Stuff A Dreary Discussion of Democratic Legislatures A Redundant Repetition of the Theme: Contrasting Legislatures in Parliamentary and Presidential Systems A Tired Attempt to Make Coalition Politics Interesting with a Lame Example A Dreary Bleakness in the Authoritarian Gloom: They Endure Legislative Institutions, Too Chapter 8: Brazilian Bureaucracy: Do I Even Need to Bother with the Jokes? Bureaucracy, It Goes to Eleven So, What is a Bureaucracy? There Be Flaws in Yonder Bureaucracy, Obviously Chapter 9: Courts and Law: Politics behind the Gavel, Obviously, but What's under the Gown? Law and Politics The Functions of Courts Trial and Appellate Courts Legal Systems Jurisprudence Types of Law Constitutional Review Chapter 10: Not Quite Right, but Still Good: The Democratic Ideal in Modern Politics Arrow's Theorem Democracy and the Liberal Ideal An Economic Theory of Democracy The Real versus the Ideal, Again Chapter 11: Media, Politics, and Government: Talking Heads Are Better than None Reality and Beyond The Whole China Charade Your New Brain and the Creation of Reality News Media and Politics A Vast Conspiracy? Understanding the Distortions Is the Key Chapter 12: International Politics: Apocalypse Now and Then Causes of War Back to Anarchy World War I Was Unpleasant Realism and War Challenging the Realist Paradigm Chapter 13: Chapter 13 Was Confiscated for Your Protection Chapter 14: Political Culture: Sex and Agriculture, Getting Rucked Explains It All Political Culture Applying Political Culture Back to the Question of What Is Culture? Chapter 15: The Lastest and Bestest Chapter: The Study of Politics Here's Where the Story Ends The Study of Politics The Applied Subfields Conclusion

Additional information

CIN1483368491G
9781483368498
1483368491
A Novel Approach to Politics: Introducing Political Science through Books, Movies, and Popular Culture by Douglas A. Van Belle
Douglas A. Van Belle
Used - Good
Paperback
SAGE Publications Inc
20150224
536
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - A Novel Approach to Politics