WORLD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POLITICAL SYSTEMS: Two Volumes

(The study of politics is a study of conflict, whenever a few people gather to decide on common aims and means, some degree of conflict appears. Individual ambitions, more or less incompatible social and economic interests, and ideals that are often mutually exclusive compete for the resources of the group. When confined to a small restitution a church, a fraternal order, a business the means by which such conflict can be pursued are limited and the potential gains and losses are relatively small. When the conduct of a sovereign state is at issue, however, the potential gains in wealth, prestige, and economic and physical power can be immense and the potential losses proportionately severe. Furthermore, the full resources of the state and society can be brought to bear on the conflict money, people, institutions, and if necessary, weapons. National politics is a serious business, often deadly serious. The business of politics is conducted within a system of interacting elements which include the state and its government with executive, legislative and judicial functions and customary and/or written rules of procedure; a variety of social and economic interests which may or may not express themselves through political parties; and processes through which political parties or interests bring their influence to bear on the government. This encyclopedia describes these elements of the political systems of 169 sovereign nations and eight dependent territories in a relatively narrow cross-section of time, roughly the summer and fall of 1982)