Product Description: All too frequently, leadership is reduced to a simple dichotomy: the strong versus the weak. Yet, there are myriad ways to exercise effective political leadership-as well as different ways to fail. We blame our leaders for economic downfalls and praise them for vital social reforms, but rarely do we question what makes some leaders successful while others falter...read more

Product Description: From one of the world's preeminent political historians, a magisterial study of political leadership around the world from the advent of parliamentary democracy to the age of Obama.All too frequently, leadership is reduced to a simple dichotomy: the strong versus the weak...read more

A rigorously argued and lively interpretation of the transformation of the Soviet system, the disintegration of the Soviet state, the end of the Cold War, and the role of Mikhail Gorbachev. Written by a leading authority on Soviet politics, this thoroughly researched book draws on new archival sources and puts perestroika in fresh perspective.Perestroika began as an attempt by a minority within the leadership of the Communist Party to reform the Soviet system. The decisive role was played by the new General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev. Perestroika (reconstruction) developed into an attempt to move from Communism to competitive elections and a market economy of a social democratic type. This 'revolution from above' had profound consequences, both intended and unintended. The latter included the dissolution of the Soviet state. Four of the ten chapters were written in 'real time' - in the second half of the 1980s while perestroika was still underway. The other six chapters provide an up-to-date discussion of such important issues as the stimuli to perestroika, its intellectual origins and development, its influence on other countries and their influence on developments in the Soviet Union, and the ending of the Cold War. Archie Brown takes issue with a number of popular interpretations of perestroika - and of the end of the Cold War - and draws on new archival sources in a book which is both clearly and vigorously argued and well documented.

Product Description: In The Demise of Marxism-Leninism in Russia , distinguished specialists chart the rise of new thinking on the Soviet system and the decline and fall of Marxism-Leninism in the late Soviet period. They also discuss the failure of Marxism-Leninism to make a comeback in post-Soviet Russia...read more

This authoritative and accessible book is the first scholarly account and interpretation of the development of the study of politics in Britain in the twentieth century. A team of well-known specialists examines the growing professionalization of political science in the second half of the century, including the significant contributions of historians, philosophers, lawyers, political practitioners, and journalists. (view table of contents)

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Product Description: A unique Reader that brings together outstanding published works on Russian politics, this important book includes fourteen new, updated articles specially written for this collection. It analyzes major recent developments, including the Duma election of 1999, the Presidential election of 2000, and the institutional changes launched by President Putin...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

A profile of Mikhail Gorbachev and his seven years in power examines the enormous challenges he faced, the radical changes that took place during his years in office, and how these events reflected Gorbachev's evolving role. UP.

More than one hundred specialists treat all aspects of life in the former Soviet Union from the earliest times up to such important recent events as the era of glasnost, the 1991 coup attempt, and economic reform.

Product Description: Ideas previously censored because of the challenge they posed both to traditional Marxism-Leninism and the political and economic foundations of the Soviet state became the subject of vigorous public discussion after 1985. This volume examines the officially-endorsed "New Political Thinking" and its origins...read more

Product Description: The Soviet political system concentrates great power in the hands of a central leadership body in Moscow. In this study, the leadership is analyzed from various points of view by a group of Western researchers in Soviet politics. The text covers the entire Soviet period, from 1917 to the present day, but pays particular attention to the post-Stalin years and the new developments of the 1980s...read more

Product Description: Political Culture and Political Change in Communist States 1979