European Politics Today (2nd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Factually incorrect and hastily-written.
Review: I was recommended this book on the basis that it might serve as an introduction to comparisons between European political systems. Having spent an extortionate amount of money on a copy, I found it to be an introduction to things that go wrong if you let your secretary write your book. Being English I was able to spot the glaring errors written about my own country with ease (examples include the authors being unaware of the Stormont Parliament, using the words Britain and United Kingdom interchangeably, and a total lack of understanding of the way in which parliamentary democracy works in the UK), but when I turned to the chapters concerning countries in mainland Europe, about whose governmental machinations I knew (and still know) little, I found myself unable to trust the material, since I had no way of knowing whether any of it was true. It may have been a momentary lapse of the part of the authors that led them to fail so miserably in their attempt to understand the United Kingdom, but I am sure it is much easier for a team based in the United States to examine British political life than to look closely at the parliamentary process of Sweden or the Czech Republic, and since they were unable to avoid schoolboy errors in their reporting of the former, I feel I can be forgiven for my assumption that their accuracy in the latter probably left something to be desired.