Textbooks seldom inspire accolades, particularly the dry behemoths often used in survey courses. A Novel Approach to Politics turns the conventional textbook wisdom on its head. This is a textbook your students will want to read! Adopters of previous editions from schools all over the country are thanking Novel Approach for some of their best student evaluations to date.

With this new edition, Van Belle brings the book fully up-to-date with coverage of the Obama administration and other changes in administrations and regimes worldwide; current policy debates about issues like reproductive rights, whether corporations are people, and the important effects of partisanship; international happenings such as the Arab Spring and the Euro crisis, and other assorted intergalactic matters. Van Belle adds discussions of a wealth of new and recent movies and books to the text, as he illustrates key concepts in political science through examples that will captivate students. Employing a wide range of references from 1984 to Game of Thrones to The Avengers, students are given a very solid grounding in institutions, ideology, and economics.

Just so things don’t get way too crazy—the textbook bits and pieces are still there to aid students–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.

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

• Fully updated and revised to account for current events domestically and internationally

FEATURES & BENEFITS:

• The “Thinkers in Boxes” feature calls out pivotal political philosophers, theorists, and assorted hipsters
• Bolded key terms
• Chapter summaries
• Study questions and exercises
• Websites to Explore

Fully updated and revised to account for current events domestically and internationally

CQ Press is pleased to comply with the Higher Education Opportunity Act. Please email heoacompliance@cqpress.com for additional information that may be available. Be sure to include your name, contact information, academic affiliation, and the title, author, and edition of the book in question.

Contact us at collegesales@cqpress.com if we may assist you in your book selection or if you have feedback to share. Thank you for your consideration of CQ Press books.

1. Introducing the Ancient Debate: The Ideal versus the Real

• The Dollhouse
• Fiction as a Tool for Exploring Politics
• Utopias in Fiction and Politics
  • Utopia Ain’t What You’re Thinking
  • Utopias as Social Statement
  • Utopias in Practical Use
• Ideologies
  • Distinguishing Ideologies from Theories
  • Classifying Ideologies
    • Classic Liberalism: The Mother of All Ideologies
    • Classic Conservatism
    • Communism
    • Democratic Socialism
    • Reform Liberalism
    • Fascism
    • Other Ideologies
• What Is Politics?
• What Is Political Science?
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

2. Why Government? Security, Anarchy, and Some Basic Group Dynamics

• A Model for the Emergence of Cooperation: Bobsville
• Collective Action
• Security
• Power
• Anarchy
  • Anarchy and Power
  • An Impetus for Government
• The Context of Hierarchy
• Alliances
• Groups and Group Identities
  • Group Identities
  • Conflict between Groups
  • Leadership Interests
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

3. Governing Society: We Know Who You Are

• Leadership Benefits
• The Panopticon
• Collective Action, Revolution, and the Use of Force
  • Atomization
    • Peer Policing
    • Preference Falsification
  • Limits on Forceful Control
• Legitimacy and Government Control
  • Got to Give the People What They Want: Elections and Public Goods
  • Balancing Force and Legitimacy
  • Legitimacy and Conflict within Groups
    • A Safety Valve
    • Crosscutting Cleavages
  • Conflict as a Source of Legitimacy
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

4. Government’s Role in the Economy: The Offer You Can’t Refuse

• The Tragedy of the Commons
  • Grazing Sheep and the Temptation to Cheat
  • The Stag Hunt and Social Choice
  • From Farming to Fishing
  • Escaping the Tragedy of the Commons
• Karl Marx--Student of Capitalism?
  • The Adolescence of Capitalism
  • Competition as the Driving Force in Capitalism
  • The Pool of Labor as a Common Resource
  • I Thought You Said There’d be a Revolution?
• Socialism
• The Yin and Yang of Capitalism and Socialism
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

5. Structures and Institutions

• Structures or Institutions?
• Human Nature and Political Institutions
• The Reality of Political Institutions
  • Context, Evolution, and the Unbearable Weight of History
  • Failed Institutions
  • Too Legit to Quit: Legitimacy, Information, and Human Nature
• Simgovernment
  • Step 1: Choose a Terrain
  • Step 2: Choose a Basic Form
  • Step 3: Connect Your Government
  • Step 4: Build Your Institutions
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

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
  • Because God™ Said So
  • Authoritarian Oligarchy
• The Democratic Executive
  • Si, El Presidente
  • Yes, Minister
  • Democratic Executives as Head of State
  • Democratic Executive as Head of Government
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

7. The Confederacy of Dunces-The Legislative (Not in Bad Spanish) 

• Boring History Stuff
  • The Tedium of Repetitive Redundancy
  • The Monotony of Religion
  • As Exciting as Accountancy 101
• A Dreary Discussion of Democratic Legislatures
  • The Humdrum Function of Lawmaking
  • The Lackluster Function of Legislative Representation
  • Subsection for Tiresome Details about Representation Strategies
  • A Monochromatic Subsection on Types of Representatives
  • Featureless Subsection on the Function of Checking
  • The Wearisome Legislative Function of Legitimizing
  • How Hard Would It Be to Convince you that the Educating Function Was Dull?
• Intermission
• A Redundant Repetition of the Theme: Contrasting Legislatures in Parliamentary and Presidential Systems
  • The Monotony of Gridlock in Presidential Systems
  • The Banality of Parliamentary Instability
• The Unbearably Predictable Section Telling you that Representation is Also Messed Up because Both Single-district and Proportional Systems Can’t Quite Manage to Function Ideally…Surprise, Surprise
  • A Tired Attempt to Make Coalition Politics Interesting with a Lame Example
    • The Facile Cataloging of Representation Flaws in District Elections
  • A Dreary Bleakness in the Authoritarian Gloom: They Endure Legislative Institutions, Too
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercise
• Websites to Explore

8. Brazilian Bureaucracy-Do we even need to bother with the Jokes?

• Bureaucracy, It Goes To Eleven
• So What Is A Bureaucracy?
  • Do We Really Want Bureaucracies?
  • The Ideals of Bureaucratic Governance
  • Policymaking versus Administration
  • Bureaucratic Roles
• There Be Flaws in Yonder Bureaucracy, Obviously
  • Overhead Democracy and Authority Leakage
  • The Iron Triangle
  • Agency Theory and the Responsive Bureaucracy
  • The Cockroach Theory of Bureaucracy
  • Conclusionoscopy
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

9. Courts and Law: Politics behind the Gavel, Obviously, but What’s Under the Gown?

• Law and Politics
  • Law on the Books versus Law in Action
  • Symbols
• The Functions of Courts
  • Dispute Resolution
  • Policymaking
  • Monitoring Government
• Trial and Appellate Courts
• Legal Systems
  • The Civil Law System
  • Common Law
  • Religious Law
• Jurisprudence
  • Natural Law
  • Positivist Jurisprudence
  • Realist Jurisprudence
• Types of Law
  • Private Law versus Public Law
  • Criminal Law versus Civil Law
  • Federal Law versus State Law
  • International Law
• Constitutional Review
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

10. Not Quite Right, but Still Good: The Democratic Ideal in Modern Politics

• Arrow’s Theorem
• Democracy and the Liberal Ideal
  • Direct Democracy
  • Representative Democracy
• An Economic Theory of Democracy
  • Winner Take All
  • Winner Takes Their Share
  • New Zealand Elections—We Aren’t Making This Up, Honest
• The Real versus the Ideal, Again
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

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
  • The Business of the News
  • The Political Soap Opera
    • Conflict Makes the World Go ‘Round
    • Sex in the City
    • Honey, the Dingo Stole another Baby
    • The Tragically Hip
  • Will He Bring Balance to the Force?
  • Elite Dominance of the Sources of News
• A Vast Conspiracy?
  • The Mutual Exploitation Model
  • The Watergate Is A Hotel, No?
  • Of Cockroaches and Politicians
  • Protest and the Disadvantaged Voice
• Understanding the Distortions Is the Key
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

12. International Politics: Apocalypse Now and Then

• Causes of War
• Back To Anarchy
• World War I Was Unpleasant
  • The Horror, the Horror
  • All Quiet on the Western Front?
• Realism and War
  • Opportunity
  • Fear This
  • Balancing and Bandwagoning
• Challenging the Realist Paradigm
  • The Not So Black Box
  • Why Kant Democracies Fight?
  • The Shadow of the Hegemon
  • “It’s the Economy, Stupid” –Karl Marx
  • Imperfection is Cool, Honest
  • Dude, Think about the Fish
  • Constructivism
  • Roaring Mice and Vacation Hotspots
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

13. Chapter 13 was Confiscated for Your Protection

14. Political Culture: Sex & Agriculture, Getting Rucked Explains it All

• Political Culture
  • Consequences of Culture
  • If Not Culture?
  • Culture as Explanation
• Applying Political Culture
  • A Thousand Miles to Nowhere: Isolation and Foreign Policy
  • Culture and Social Distance
  • Culture as Politics
  • The Sound of Black
  • The Haka in Texas
  • Cultural Ownership
• Back to the Question of “What is Culture?”
• Key Terms
• Chapter Summary
• Study Questions and Exercises
• Websites to Explore

15. The Lastest and Bestest Chapter: The Study of Politics

• Here’s Where the Story Ends
• The Study of Politics
  • American Politics
  • International Relations
  • Comparative Politics
  • Political Theory
• The Applied Subfields
  • Public Policy
  • Public Administration
  • Public Law
  • Methodological Divisions in the Study of Politics
• Conclusion

Sent to Earth shortly before Krypton exploded, Doug VanBelle was raised by gorillas in Africa and then bitten by a radioactive spider while on a high school field trip. None of that helped much at all. He misspent his youth-and a bit more-trying to find a violent competitive sport that did not cause him serious harm, but the four times he broke his nose suggest that he is slow to learn. Somewhere in there, there was a bunch of degrees and some other learnin' stuff. He was awarded a full scholarship in Chemical Engineering, dropped out after the first year, went through seven other majors, failed a creative writing elective, took a semester off to work in the Alaskan commercial fishing industry and somehow still managed to graduate on time. He is now a political science professor who writes science fiction and teaches in the media studies programme at Victoria University of Wellington. He is the former president of both the Foreign Policy Analysis and International Communication research sections of the International Studies Association, the Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy Analysis, and he has written extensively on theories of political decision making and the role of news media in international relations.

Student Resources
http://www.cqpress.com/cs/novel/

A student companion website features chapter summaries, study questions, interactive flashcards, multiple choice quizzes, and annotated web links.

Instructor’s Resources
http://college.cqpress.com/instructors-resources/novel/

An appendix of fiction resources is included in the book, but is augmented for instructors to include discussion and essay questions to help kick off discussion groups and writing assignments focused on particular movies and books.

There is also a test bank that will help instructors create exams using multiple-choice and short-answer questions, testing on all of the major political science concepts in the book.

PowerPoint lecture slides round out this impressive package of resources.