The concepts of agency and structure are of increasing and defining importance to international relations and politics as fields of enquiry and knowledge. This is the first book to explore the two concepts in depth in that context. The agent-structure problem refers to questions concerning the interrelationship of agency and structure, and to the ways in which explanations of social phenomena integrate and account for them. This is an important contribution to the study of international relations and politics.

By revealing the contextual conditions which promote or hinder democratic development, Comparative Politics shows how democracy may not be the best institutional arrangement given a country's unique set of historical, economic, social, cultural and international circumstances. Addresses the contextual conditions which promote or hinder democratic development Reveals that democracy may not be the best institutional arrangement given a country's unique set of historical, economic, social, cultural and international circumstances Applies theories and principles relating to the promotion of the development of democracy to the contemporary case studies

Winslow Williams Clifford is one of the few historians so far who have addressed the history and culture of the so-called Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517) on the basis of theoretical models. This volume is a posthumous publication of his doctoral thesis, submitted in 1995 at the University of Chicago. Through his skillful application of social theory, Clifford succeeded in providing highly convincing evidence that the Mamluk rulers did not - as was maintained fo a long time - constitute a static form of "oriental despotism" but was, rather, a highly differentiated society. It was primarily based on compliance with a complex system of order that had established itself during the rule of the first sultans.

What the contributors to this volume offer is neither a romantic version of the course of Polish history nor a jubilant account of the recovery of national independence and political choice. Rather, they offer a variety of tough-minded analytic perspectives on what comes when "the party's over" - not just the PSPR but the celebration marking its downfall. They focus on Poland's movement toward an internationally competitive market economy, a political democracy in which plural interests compete, and the constitution of a civil society that both tolerates and ameliorates conflict. The multidisciplinary contributors include Jan Mujzel, Keith Crane, Benjamin Slay, Kazimierz Poznanski; Jan Bossak, Wojciech Bienkowski, Wlodzimierz Wesolowski, Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski, Adam Sarapata, Andrzej Sicinski, Piotr Lukasiewicz, Krzysztof Nowak, David S. Mason, Adrzej Rychard, Krzysztof Jasiewicz, Jack Bielasiak, Janusz Reykowski, Stanislaw Gebethner, Miroslawa Marody, Edmund Mokrzycki, and Michael D. Kennedy.

The Handbook will address a range of issues that have emerged out of recent social and political theory. It will focus on key themes as opposed to schools of thought or major theorists. Each chapter is an emerging, cutting edge topic that is of interest both to social theory and to political theory. Most topics will have a clear and substantive focus on social or political problems.

A review devoted to the historical statistical and comparative study of politics, economics and public law.

This book is the first major study of provincial history in the Qajar period. Drawing extensively on unpublished Iranian and British documents, it explores the history of Mazandaran, a province in the Caspian region, during 1848-1914, when the province as a part of Iran was exposed to the policies of rival great powers, particularly Tzarist Russia. While showing socio-economic characteristics of Mazandaran and its potential for development, the book examines in detail the transformation of the traditional provincial community and economy in the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In Global Political Economy and the Modern State System Tobias ten Brink contributes to an understanding of the modern state system, its conflicts, and its transformation. In contrast to the political attractiveness of optimistic theoretical approaches to globalisation, this book demonstrates how an analytical approach rooted in Global Political Economy (GPE) helps to explain both the tendencies towards integration and towards rivalry in international relations. By way of a historical reconstruction of different ‘world order’ phases in the twentieth century, ten Brink analyses multiple, phase-specific variations of socioeconomic and geopolitical conflicts that are significant for the modern capitalist world system. Revised edition of Geopolitik. Geschichte und Gegenwart kapitalistischer Staatenkonkurrenz, Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster, 2008.