Political Analysis

'A truly excellent and enormously useful volume which provides a remarkably coherent and powerful synthesis of an enormous body of literature. Political Analysis does more than simply summarize previous work in comparative politics and international relations, it genuinely moves the debate forward. Whether or not one accepts Professor Hay's call for a constructivistinstitutionalism (and he offers many good reasons why we should) this is a book that all students of politics must take seriously.' - Sven Steinmo,University of Colorado, Boulder

Political Analysis provides an accessible and engaging yet original introduction and distinctive contribution, to the analysis of political structures, institutions, ideas and behaviours, and above all, to the political processes through which they are constantly made and remade.Political Analysis provides an accessible and engaging yet original introduction and distinctive contribution, to the analysis of political structures, institutions, ideas and behaviours, and above all, to the political processes through which they are constantly made and remade. Following an innovative introduction to the main approaches and concepts in political analysis, the text focuses thematically on the key issues which currently concern and divide political analysts, including the boundaries of the political; the question of structure, agency and power; the dynamics of political change; the relative significance of ideas and material factors; and the challenge posed by postmodernism which the author argues the discipline can strengthen itself by addressing without allowing it to become a recipe for paralysis.