ABSTRACT
Hugh Berrington’s How Nations are Governed (1964) was a splendid book. Within the 107 pages of its main text it provided a lucid and knowledgeable introduction to the study of politics. Its Hobbesian account of the orgins of government was complemented by a series of chapters covering a wide range of topics, including constitutional issues, the role of political parties, electoral systems, varieties of executive and legislative relations in liberal democracies, government in non-democratic states and international government. It was theoretically clear, empirically informed, comparative in scope and written with Hugh Berrington’s typical verve and conciseness. As far as I can see, there are only two-characteristically English-reasons why it has not become one of the standard texts put into the hands of all students of politics: the failure of the publishers properly to market it and the backward-looking nature of the British political science profession, for whom the behavioural revolution was (and in some cases still is) a thing of the future.
