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IMPORTANT QUESTIONS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE TYPICALLY GENERATE COMPLEX AND SUBTLE THEORETICAL CONFLICT. STUDENTS FREQUENTLY HAVE DIFFICULTY ACQUIRING A USEFULLY FIRM GRASP OF THE OFTEN ESOTERIC ISSUES INVOLVED IN SUCH DEBATES WHILE SCHOLARSHIP IS NEVER PAINLESS, STUDENTS' PROGRESS TOWARD CONCEPTUAL SOPHISTICATION CAN BE FACILITATED THROUGH USE OF PREPARED DIALOGS BETWEEN PROPONENTS OF CONFLICTING VIEWS. A CAREFULLY PREPARED DIALOG PROVIDES A GUIDED INTRODUCTION TO READING AND DISCUSSION, AND PRECLUDES TRIVIALIZATION OF ONE PERSPECTIVE IN FAVOR OF ANOTHER. WE INCLUDE A FULLY DEVELOPED ILLUSTRATIVE DIALOG BETWEEN A MODERNITY THEORIST AND A PROPONENT OF DEPENDENCY THEORY.

Based on a collaboration between historians of Chinese and European politics, this volume offers a first comprehensive overview of current research on political communication in middle-period European and Chinese history. The chapters present new work on the sources and processes of political communication in European and Chinese history partly through juxtaposing and combining formerly separate historiographies and partly through direct comparison. Contrary to earlier comparative work on empires and state formation, which aimed to explain similarities and differences with encompassing models and new theories of divergence, the goal is to further conversations between historians by engaging regional historiographies from the bottom up.

The relationship between the Spanish and later the Guatemalan state with the Mayan Indians over the past four centuries is a fundamental component of Guatemalan political history. Since the beginnings of the nation, when the Mayans were political and military entities of power and independence with whom the Spanish had to come to terms; to the 1944-1954 "Revolutionary Era," when Indian communities were finally conceded limited social, economic, and political rights; and the period from 1979 to 1984 in which the military regimes killed "tens of thousands by some estimates as high as 80,000" Indians; the Indian population has been persistently in the consciousness of national officials.

Two integrative approaches to the study of Western political theory are briefly described. The first, deriving from comparative philology & historical anthropology, is commended for providing an overview of political philosophy in the Indo-European cultures; the importance of treaties on statecraft in this tradition is underscored. The second perspective focuses on the cultural & anthropological bases of Western political writings; a comparative mythology comprising both substantive & conceptual aspects of these writings is advanced to explain both the coherence & internal differentiation of this tradition. Applications of a genetic model in the second approach are also considered. L. Whittemore.

What is the status of rational choice theory in contemporary European political science? Compared with a quarter-century ago, the rational choice approach is still far from being the paradigm of work in the discipline, but looking at both anecdotal evidence and information derived from journal citations and textbook contents, it seems that the number of political scientists working wholly or partly within the approach has grown markedly, and that its contribution to the mainstream of the field is strong.