30-Second Politics: The 50 most thought-provoking ideas in politics, each explained in half a minute

By Steven L. Taylor

You may be OK with standard stuff like Conservatism and Democracy, but do you really know what Patrimonialism is? And what about Oligarchy? Anarcho-syndicalism? Politics is, we are willing to bet, the most passionately argued-over subject matter, and yet how many of us flounder around in confrontational debates because we have no grip on political theory, just a vague notion that they are all out to get us? 30-Second Politics will help dispel this fog mistrust and paranoia. It challenges political theorists of all colors to come up with no-frill, no-spin, tell-it-like-it-is explanations of the 50 most important political -isms, -archies, and -ocracies that have pertained since the time of Periclean Athens. At no public expense, the book explains each political theory in nothing more than two pages, 300 words, and some propaganda-style imagery, for we all know that a picture opportunity is worth a thousand words of dull interview.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Icon Books Ltd
• Release date: Jun 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781848314276

Reviews for 30-Second Politics

[droider-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A short book with simplified explanations of the different politic regimes and their advocates.

[claude_lambert_10 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book presents the principal political ideologies, regimes and philosophies in one short page each. Subjects range from anarchism to check and balances and constructivism. The authors all teach political science at college level. I think that they are very good: it is hard to describe a political vision in a few hundred words without being simplistic or ridiculous. This is fairly well done, better than most heavy textbooks I have seen around. I recommend it for libraries and high schools.I bet that most students, and even most adults do not know that much on politics, so a short fair book is worth gold. There are good references to go deeper and internal references to related subjects. Frankly, I am happy to keep it in my library.