---
product_id: 7080566
title: "Politics: A Very Short Introduction"
brand: "kenneth minogue"
price: "HK$180"
currency: HKD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.hk/products/7080566-politics-a-very-short-introduction
store_origin: HK
region: Hong Kong
---

# Politics: A Very Short Introduction

**Brand:** kenneth minogue
**Price:** HK$180
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Politics: A Very Short Introduction by kenneth minogue
- **How much does it cost?** HK$180 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hk](https://www.desertcart.hk/products/7080566-politics-a-very-short-introduction)

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- kenneth minogue enthusiasts

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## Description

Politics: A Very Short Introduction

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Much ado about despotism and ideology
  

*by C***N on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 17, 2016*

This book will surely produce a highly polarized response as late Australian conservative Kenneth Minogue’s politics would have been highly polarizing in his studies.  Minogue essentially traces the Anglo-European understanding of politics as a development from classical traditions.  It should be read with that bias in mine: it is Eurocentric, but erudite.  Minogue makes good points about the “anti-political” nature of both “ideology” and “despotism” but he also special pleads and “No True Scotsman” to do so. Still, most of these Oxford introductions could be what Hobbes said about humans under the state of nature, “nasty, brutish, and short”—or at least, “idiosyncratic, brooding, and short”—and Minogue manages to be engaging and give a fairly historiographic accounting of what he sees as development of the ideas of European politics.  I suspect, however, that most people who disagree with Minogue’s focus on the state or his somewhat specific limitations on “despotism” and “ideology” will quickly disagree with his axioms so that they see the virtues of his accounting.  I, personally, do not think so a clear limit can be made between politics as deliberation and politics as the legitimatizing and limiting on violence.  Indeed, Minogue’s endorse of Hobbes further complicates this.  Lastly. his inability to discuss politics outside of the Greco-Roman and Europe/Anglo Commonwealth and the States perspective really limits the scope of the book in a way that undercuts some of his key points.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Brilliant and illuminating. Also the best SHORT description of socialism and ideologies. A GEM !
  

*by G***) on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 27, 2018*

I feel that I understand political theory now better than I ever expected I would. I review it often and learn more each time.  The last two chapters which discuss ideologies are absolutely essential reading in my opinion and people concerned about our world today will come away with a deeper understanding by VERY carefully reading each fairly brief chapter of this book.  I agree with another review above that it is a bit of a challenge to read but I find that if I read it very carefully and even slowly I come away with rich clear understanding . I am grateful I found it and did NOT PUT IT AWAY. It requires just a bit of FOCUS and begins to shape a rich tapestry of how people have learned to live together. ( or tried ). It spans most of recorded history magisterially. I am richer for devouring this gem. It is not super long but extremely thorough!!! A joy.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    An interesting introduction to politics from a conservative Chrisian perspective.
  

*by F***D on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 4, 2013*

In Minogue's view, politics as we know it can only exist in a Christian nation, because without Christianity, we have only dictatorship, where politics is forbidden.  "Christianity was in these elaborations revealed to be a religon moral challenge."  It is this moral challenge that, in Minogue's view, makes modern conservative politics different from the politics of the Greeks and Romans, which only considered the interest of the state and not of the individual.  In his concluding chapter, Minogue decribes modern progressive ideas as the enemy of individualism, and possibly the end of politics.  In his view, progressives are ideologues, who see the government as the solution to every problem, and strive to introduce a international dictatorship, in which every aspect of human life is controled.  This view simply does not jibe with the ideas of any progressives I know.  At best, it is an outsider's view of what progressivism is all about.  Still, many conservative Christian readers will find this idea appealing, and even liberal readers, such as myself, will find much of interest in the earlier chapters.

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*Product available on Desertcart Hong Kong*
*Store origin: HK*
*Last updated: 2026-03-09*