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The last 75 years have brought significant changes to the political and geographic picture of the world. The count of independent nations has grown from 68 in 1930 to 193 (or so) in 2005. Keeping up with the evolutions of all these nations and the supranational institutions (the UN, the European Union, and other regional affiliations) is a daunting task.

In these volumes, 310 alphabetically arranged articles range in length from 500 to 3,500 words and cover 198 regions ("including every independent nation and several territories") as well as international courts, supranational institutions, concepts central to understanding political organization and human rights, and key individuals who have had positive and negative impacts on the evolution of citizens' rights and responsibilities. Country entries describe the system of government and the political evolution, with emphasis on the twentieth century and on issues related to the relationship between government and citizen. Each signed article concludes with a bibliography. The credentials of the authors (mostly academicians) are provided in the directory of contributors. Sidebars and black-and-white maps and illustrations break up the text. Same-page definitions in the margins of terms (such as ethnic cleansing, guerrilla, and republic make the information more comprehensible, as does the glossary, which is repeated at the end of each volume. In addition, each volume includes a cumulative index and a thematic outline of topics so that users can easily locate information on relevant persons, documents, legal issues, and concepts, as well as country-specific data and history, and teachers can plan correlated assignments. Another useful feature is the filmography, which is arranged by country. Entries are complemented by volume-specific selections of primary documents (for example, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, and Convention of the Rights of the Child).

Comparative government is a difficult subject to grasp, and the constant changes around the globe make it almost impossible to have current information in one source. For the moment, at least, this set ties things together so that one can get an overview of where the world stood in 2005. In addition to updating such earlier works as Governments of the World: Student Companion (Oxford, 1998) and The World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties (3d ed., Facts On File, 1999), it offers a different perspective with its emphasis on rights and responsibilities. Recommended where budget, interest, and space warrant。

这时卷三、卷四。

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[此贴子已经被作者于2007-7-18 14:49:10编辑过]