Books in the Contemporary Political Studies series

This comprehensive introductory text starts by charting the origins and evolution of the shift from public administration to public management and moves on to assess the main theories and debates about its character, benefits and problems.

A systematic and comprehensive introduction to party politics throughout the UK combining chapters on each of the main parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats) with an assessment of the post-devolution party systems of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the EU dimension and the recent Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

The Labour Government has unleashed a new dynamism in urban policy and politics in Britain and given rise to a variety of initiatives including elected mayors, regional development agencies and assaults on social exclusion and educational standards, to name but a few.

This text provides a clear overview and assessment of the educational policy systems at work in the UK. Accessibly written and covering pre-school and Higher Education policy-making as well as Primary and Secondary, the author examines the evolution of education policy from the Education Act of '44 to the academies of today.

This fully revised new edition includes expanded coverage of Parliament's relationship with the courts, devolved assemblies and the European Union. Distinctively, the book goes beyond the usual focus of Parliament-Government relations to encompass policy-makers beyond Whitehall and Parliament's broader relationship with citizens.

This comprehensively revised replacement volume for Pyper's popular text The British Civil Service provides a broad-ranging introduction to the civil service today. It explains and assesses the impact on the civil service of the historic Whitehall unitary model, the New Public Management of Thatcher and Major and Blair's modernisation.

Written by one of Britain's leading analysts of pressure groups, this book provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of pressure group politics in the UK and of the increasingly important EU dimension.

Despite the central importance of elections to representative democracy, there is no systematic study available of how exactly the parties wage their election campaigns.

Contemporary local governance in Britain comprises a complex network of organisations working in partnership to formulate policies to address local needs and issues. Within this, local government continues to play an important part in policy and practice and in the structures and processes of local democracy.

This broad-ranging text examines the big issues about political attitudes, behaviour and participation in contemporary Britain. Written by a leading expert and drawing on extensive research, this will be essential reading for all students of British politics and everyone involved in the world of politics and policy.

A comprehensive assessment of how economic policy is made in Britain at the start of the 21st century and of how the content of taxation, spending, monetary and regulatory policy has evolved since 1945.