ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the state as the basic structure or unit of analysis it is pertinent to introduce the two major traditions of the state that evolved in Eurasia. It looks at the contemporary era where democracy is the form of government that is in vogue in the majority of the world's states. During the European Middle Ages feudal monarchies with powerful aristocracies emerged alongside the Church, which was a non-hereditary, elective, theocratic, monarchy. The successes are obvious, in that India is a stable constitutional democracy. Russia, since 1990, has evolved into an illiberal, democratically elected autocracy dominated by the security establishment that picked up the pieces after the fall of the Soviet Union. The space programs of Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, were meant to demonstrate the superiority of their respective political and socioeconomic systems.
