Terrence E. Cook Libri

The book delves into the principles of coalition politics, emphasizing that actors operate with bounded rationality and often form marginally winning coalitions with similar groups to maximize rewards. It categorizes coalitions into four types—country, regime, agenda, and cabinet—and analyzes their interrelations, revealing how broader coalitions lead to more specific ones with reduced support. Additionally, it suggests that changes at the program or cabinet level typically do not weaken, and may even reinforce, the overarching coalitions of the regime or country.

A contribution toward grand theory of political change, The Rise and Fall of Regimes describes three kinds of rule systems : (1) pragmatic , or opportunistic, Machiavellian; (2) informal normative , or moral; and (3) formal normative , such as laws and treaties. Changing relative ascendencies of these rule systems define six ideal-typical stages in the development and decline of both states and international regimes. As implicit in Martin Wight, these stages of distinctive rules climates may in development move «Machiavellian», to «Grotian», to «Kantian», and then reverse these in the three stages of decline. In describing each stage, the author explores the dynamic mechanisms, which accent shifting kinds of problems as these relate to coalitions that form or fall apart behind political communities, regimes, or specific leaders. The last chapter suggests relevance to understanding systems of power and the practical goal of predicting and preventing wars.