Customer Reviews

Political Ideologies

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I actually had the pleasure of taking his political science course at the local college, and was amazed about how interesting he made the material, so I picked up his book. It is amazing compared to what we were forced to use in class! There are so many myths floating around thanks to our "wonderful" media, who say we're getting fair information when they're really just owned by a giant corporation and have to push their views. I sold back the course textbook and bought this instead, and read this over and over since it relates so well to our times. Since it is a textbook, there isn't the "fluff" associated with some other political books (hello Mr. Franken) and it actually educates the reader, not just talking at him/her. I recommend this for all poly sci students regardless of level, and I only hope I have the opportunity to take another of his classes.

This has to be the one college textbook (the 7th edition, really) that I read over and over again. The logic in how Baradat approaches the origin of political thought and brings it into the present balances itself with an easy-to-read engaging prose. It gives a survey of the great thinkers all over the spectrum, including anarchists, conservatives, liberals, radicals, communists, socialists, and fascists.

In today's society, I have found that most people are misinformed about the meaning of conservatism and liberalism because they get their concepts through the media. This book aggressively dispels all the myths fabricated by the AM radio conservatives and the politically-correct totalitarians.

Basic explanation of contemporary political theory and governmental make-up. Baradat's thesis encompasses the entire political spectrum by explaining each type and providing examples for each. Good starter for political science novices and a good review for more advanced students

Note that this review is for the 11th edition (2011). I have not looked at any of the previous editions and, therefore, cannot comment on them. However, judging from what the preface says about what is new to this edition, much of what I have to say here will likely apply to other editions as well.

I started reading this book with high hopes. I was looking for a text that provided a good overview of the various ideological positions that people hold, both in the United States and around the world, discussing the basic tenets and goals of each ideology, its history and major figures, its preferred methods for achieving its political objectives (e.g. top-down reform, grassroots activism, violent revolution, terrorism, separatism), its political organization (e.g. into parties, interest groups, movements, etc.), and what distinguishes it from other political viewpoints. As a bonus, I would really have liked some discussion of why people hold different ideological views: why some people are drawn to socialism, others to liberalism, others to fascism, etc. But a good overview of the world's many ideologies would have sufficed, even without an exploration of the motivations that drive people into one ideological camp or another. Although I haven't (thus far) taught any courses specifically on ideology, I do discuss ideology in some of my other political science courses; and, so, I was looking for a text I could recommend to my students, and that I could draw on when preparing lectures on the subject. I was hoping that this would be the text I was looking for. Unfortunately, it isn't.

Like I said, I started reading this book with high hopes. As I thumbed through it before I began reading, it looked as if it would be just what I was wanting. It had chapters on the spectrum of political attitudes, on nationalism, on liberalism (including a discussion of conservatism), on anarchism, on socialism, on fascism and Nazism, on ideologies in the developing world (including Islamism), and even a chapter on feminism and environmentalism. And there is some good information to be found in these chapters. The author does a pretty good job of briefly summarizing the history of each of these ideologies, identifying the most important foundational figures in each, and describing the political and economic views represented by each ideology. But, unfortunately, I found that the book failed to live up to my high hopes for a number of different reasons.

Without going into too much detail, let me briefly list what I believe to be the major shortcomings of this book (in no particular order):

* It's a bit too superficial in its coverage of the various ideologies. While it does provide some good, basic information, it only scratches the surface. Wikipedia goes into more depth about some of the topics covered in this book. This level of detail may be suitable for high school students; but not for university undergrads.

* The text covers only the major global ideologies and their most prominent variants. It does not even attempt to discuss the multitude of minor variants and offshoots of each of these ideologies.

* The author doesn't stick to the subject. There are lengthy digressions about topics that are only tangentially related to ideology, such as the structural differences between the American and the British systems of government, the problem of population growth in the developing world, and recent political changes in China and Cuba (which appear to be motivated by pragmatic concerns rather than by ideology, per se).

* The author tries too hard to keep up with current events. If this were a textbook on contemporary political issues, timeliness would be of the essence. But it's not. It's a textbook on ideologies - a subject that calls for a certain measure of perspective. In order to understand what a particular political movement stands for, you have to give it time to develop; and you have to step back and look at it from some distance. If you're too close to something, your view of it becomes distorted: relatively minor features loom large in your field of view, while major features can blend into the background. While I can sympathize with the author's desire to discuss, for example, the ideology behind the Tea Party movement, it's simply too early to judge what it's all about, apart from an expression of frustration at the direction the country has taken over the past few years. It would have been better not to mention the Tea Party at all than to try to encapsulate its essence in just a few sentences scattered throughout the text. Likewise, it would have been better not to mention the "Great Recession" at all than to simply bring it up in passing just to note that it's too early to tell what it's long-term ideological impact will be. I got the distinct impression that the author included these (and other) passing references to current events just to give him an excuse to put out a new edition of his textbook.

* There is very little discussion of Islamism. Although Islamism may not be in the same league with major global ideologies such as liberalism and socialism, it is an important ideology, nonetheless, and deserves more coverage than the (approximately) three pages it gets in this text.

* The author adopts the overly-simplistic, one-dimensional political spectrum, which places radicals and liberals on the "left" and conservatives and reactionaries on the "right", based solely on their attitudes toward change. While I would expect any text on ideology to discuss this traditional view of the political spectrum, I would hope that it would be challenged as inadequate, and that alternative political typologies would be explored. This text simply embraces the traditional view and doesn't bother to explore any alternatives.

* The text is riddled with glaring spelling, grammatical, and stylistic errors. This might be excusable in a first edition; but these errors should have been caught and corrected by the 11th edition.

* The author is just too opinionated for a textbook - especially a textbook whose purpose is to discuss how political views can differ. He doesn't shy away from using value-laden terms when describing various ideologies and individuals (at one point even referring to a couple of popular pundits as "gasbags"); and he frequently asserts things as fact that are still the subject of intense political debate. While I suspect that I would agree with many of the author's political views, I feel that an educator's job is to teach, not to preach, and that a textbook ought to inform rather than opine. By asserting one's own political viewpoints in the classroom, a teacher (or textbook writer) risks alienating students who disagree with those viewpoints; and, once you've alienated a student, he or she will stubbornly reject everything you have to say from that point on. If you want to teach, you need to stick to the facts, and leave the op ed for your blog.

These aren't the only complaints I have with this textbook; but my other complaints are relatively minor compared to these. I don't want to leave the impression that this book is worthless. Like I said above, there is some good information here. Some students might benefit from it, especially if all they wanted was a very simple, cursory overview of the major ideologies of the world. But it's simply not what I was hoping it would be when I bought it; and I would not use it if I were teaching a course on ideology, or recommend it to any of my colleagues or students.