Politics, International Relations & Philosophy

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 Higher Education         

            BA in Government, University of Essex

            MA in Political Behaviour, University of Essex

            PhD (Politics), University of Lancaster

 

Membership

            Political Studies Association

            International Political Science Association

 

Appointment

            Professor of Comparative Political Theory

                        Emeritus since 2009

While my earlier research fitted the classification of Political Science, my more recent and current research fits under the broad heading of Historical Sociology/Political Sociology.  Current research and recent publications involve the comparative political analysis of cases, both modern and historical and from the first, second and third worlds, with the aim of generating new explanatory theories with the objective of informing our understanding of politics today.

 

The focus of my interest continues to be on the ‘darker side of politics’ where political violence is involved (coups d’état, revolutions, reigns of terror, totalitarian regimes, terrorism and civil war).  On the brighter side, this focus also includes research into paths taken to democracy through political protest (including revolutions) and emerging after dictatorships and totalitarian regimes.

 

 At present I am engaged in writing a book Rosa Luxemburg: For Revolution and Democracy (Pluto Press, 2013), which brings these themes together.  Lessons are drawn from her revolutionary life of theory and action and examined in the light of the events that took place during her lifetime and through to the present day: revolutions, the terrorism of groups and regimes and the changes to democracy from military and totalitarian regimes.  They are lessons that prove important both in theory and in practice.

 

 

 BOOKS          (single author)

 

The Likelihood of Coups (Gower, Aldershot,  1987), 162 pages

 

The Revolutionary Reign of Terror: The Role of Violence in Political Change

(Edward Elgar, Aldershot,  1991), 304 pages

                        (CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book for 1993)

 

Terror, Force and States: The Path From Modernity (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham,  1996), 214 pages

 

Paths to Democracy: Revolution and Totalitarianism (Routledge, London and New York,  2004), 274 pages

 

Terrorism (Pearson Longman, Harlow,  2007), 210 pages

 

Terrorism 2^nd Edition (Pearson, Harlow, 2012), 157 pages

 

EDITED COLLECTIONS           (single editor)

 

Revolution: Critical Concepts in Political Science, Volumes I-IV, (London and New York, Routledge,  2000), Vol. I 558 pages, Vol. II 601 pages, Vol. III 545 pages, Vol. IV 516 pages

 

Terrorism Volumes I-II (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Northampton, MA,  2005),

 Vol. I 430 pages, Vol. II 516 pages

 

 

REFEREED ARTICLES (single author)

 

“A Probabilistic Approach to the Causes of Coups d’Etat”,

British Journal of Political Science,Vol. 11, 287-308,  1981.

 

“Towards an Examination of the General Causes of Coups d’Etat”,

European Journal of Political Research,Vol. 11, 27-44,  1983.

 

“Explaining African Coups d’Etat”,

American Political Science Review, Vol. 80, 232-247,  1986.

 

“Military Regimes: Power and Force”,

European Journal of Political Research,

Vol. 17, 333-350,  1989.

 

“Against Legitimacy”,

Political Studies, Vol. 41, 471-487,  1993.

 

“The Ladder of Abstraction, the Purpose of Comparison and African Coups d’Etat”,

Journal of Theoretical Politics, Vol. 5, 169-193,  1993.

 

“Coups d’Etat in Africa: A Political Economy Approach”,

Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 30, 251-270,  1993.

 

“Cambodia in the Zero Years: Rudimentary Totalitarianism”,

Third World Quarterly, Vol. 14 (4), 735-748,  1993.

 

“Legitimacy and Political Science”,

Political Studies, Vol. 42, 103-4,  1994.

 

“The National Causes of State Construction in France, Russia and China”,

Political Studies, Vol. 43, 2-21,  1995.

 

“Modernity, The Holocaust and Politics”,

Economy and Society, Vol. 26, 44-66,  1997.

 

                              “Post-Revolutionary State Building in Ethiopia, Iran and Nicaragua: Lessons from Terror”,

Political Studies, Vol. 48, 970-988,  2000.

 

“Interactive Society and Democracy: Civil Society and Pluralism in Africa Re-visited”

Democratization, Vol. 8, pp. 129-148,  2001

 

 

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS (single author)

 

“The National Causes of State Construction in France, Russia and China”, in Greg Scott (ed.) Political Science: Foundations for a Fifth Millenium, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.,  1997, pp. 263-281.

And re-printed in Rosemary H. T. O’Kane (ed.) Revolution: Critical Concepts in Political Science, Vol. II, pp. 492-513 and Terrorism Volume I (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Northampton, MA,  2005), pp. 153-172.

 

“Revolution and Social Science: Movements in Method, Theory and Practice”, in Rosemary H. T. O’Kane (ed.) Revolution: Critical Concepts in Political Science, London and New York, Routledge, 2000, Vol. I, pp. 18-39.

 

“Theorizing Terrorism”, in Rosemary H.T. O’Kane (ed.) Terrorism Volume I (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Northampton, MA,  2005), 9-23.

 

Reprinted in Rosemary H.T. O’Kane (ed.) Terrorism (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Northampton, MA,  2005):

“Post-revolutionary State Building in Ethiopia, Iran and Nicaragua: Lessons from Terror”, Volume I, pp.173-191;

“Cambodia in the Zero Years: Rudimentary Totalitarianism”, Volume I, pp.224-237;

“Modernity, the Holocaust and Politics”, Volume I, pp.238-256.

 

 

ENCYCLOPEDIA entries

 

Encyclopedia of POWER Edited by Keith Dowding (Sage, Los Angeles, 2011)

 

“Coup D’Etat”, pp.151-153;

“Military in Government”, pp.418-421;

“Terror Regimes”, pp.657-658.