worth reviewing your personal relationships and professional activi-
ties and plans to see if they are in accord with political principles you
profess (although this can be rather sobering).
No sensible author would urge all their readers to go out and
become professional politicians, but the authors share Aristotle’s
conviction that it is a mark of civilisation to wish to join in the
political life of the community. There is great satisfaction to be had in
not only discussing political issues in the abstract but in helping to
build a better world through membership of voluntary organisations
which attempt to influence events – from Greenpeace through to
Unidentified Flying Object enthusiasts. Almost everywhere local
party organisations tend to fall over themselves with eagerness in
welcoming new members. Independently readers may actually
exercise real influence through writing to newspapers and to their
elected representatives.
If politics is thought of only in terms of the activities of the nation
state, then the scope for ordinary citizens is necessarily a limited one.
But the argument of this book has been that important political
decisions can be made at the level of work, educational and leisure
organisations, by local and regional authorities, voluntary interest
groups and by international co-operation. The scope for individual
action is already large and should, in the authors’ view, be made
larger.
Recommended reading
Allison, Graham T., 1987, The Essence of Decision: Explaining the
Cuban Missile Crisis, New York, Harper College
Develops three theoretical models of decision making from a study
of the Cuban missile crisis. Influential in management schools as
well as amongst political scientists.
Friedman, Milton and Friedman, Rose, 1980, Free To Choose,
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Penguin
A popular exposition of the fashionable market-oriented view of
the relationship between government and the economy.
Hill, Michael, 1997, The Policy Process in the Modern State, London,
Prentice Hall
A standard UK public administration text with welcome emphasis
on more general themes.
POLICIES 239