A Theory of World Politics

• Main Author: Albert, Mathias (Author)
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2016 2017
• Series: Cambridge studies in international relations 141
• Subjects: International relations > Philosophy; International organization > Philosophy; Differentiation (Sociology)
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.
• Item Description: First paperback edition 2017
• Physical Description: xiii, 254 pages illustrations 23 cm.
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (page 221-249) and indexes
• ISBN: 9781316601563

In this book, Mathias Albert develops an ambitious theoretical framework that describes world politics as a specific social system set within the wider political system of world society. Albert's analysis of the historical evolution and contemporary form of world politics takes the theory of social differentiation as its starting point. World politics is a specific, relatively recent form of politics and Albert shows how the development of a distinct system of world politics first began during the long nineteenth century. The book goes on to identify the different forms of social differentiation that underlie the variety of contemporary forms of organizing political authority in world politics. Employing sociological and historical perspectives, A Theory of World Politics also reflects critically on its relation to accounts of world politics in the field of international relations and will appeal to a wide readership in a range of fields