Neil Munro è stato un giornalista e autore scozzese, oggi celebrato principalmente per i suoi racconti umoristici. Inizialmente scrisse sotto lo pseudonimo di Hugh Foulis, con l'intento di separare i suoi sforzi letterari più seri dal suo materiale più leggero. Le sue opere più conosciute presentano spesso il fittizio piroscafo del Clyde, il Vital Spark, e il suo capitano, Para Handy, oltre a racconti su altri personaggi memorabili. La scrittura di Munro si distingue per la sua acuta osservazione dell'umorismo e dello spirito della sua epoca.
Para Handy has been sailing his way into the affections of generations of Scots since he first weighed anchor in the pages of the Glasgow Evening News in 1905. This definitive edition contains all three collections published in the author's lifetime, as well as those that were unpublished and a new story which was discovered in 2001.
Illustrated edition of the hilarious exploits of Para Handy and his crew--Munro's beloved and unforgettable characters.
The abrupt transformation of one-party Communist regimes into political systems holding competitive elections challenges theories of democracy by evolution. Part One develops an inter-active model of how the supply of parties by political elites shapes the responses of inexperienced electors, and what this means for the institutionalisation of party systems and party identification. The model is then applied to elections since 1990 in ten Central and East European democracies that are now members of the European Union. Part Two provides a definitive and up to date text of election results and the formation and disappearance of parties in these ten countries. In addition, there is a lengthy chapter on elections in Russia.