Politics for Beginners

Rosie Hore (Author) Rosie studied Politics and International Relations at university and then went on to write books for Usborne. She now works at the Royal Academy of Arts, editing books about art (which often end up being about politics too). Alex Frith (Author) Alex Frith has been writing Usborne books since 2005. His diverse output covers such titles as 'See inside Your Head', 'Stories of Thor' and 'Politics for Beginners'. He has spoken at multiple festivals about his book '100 Things to Know About Space'. Alex can be found in London. Louie Stowell (Author) Louie Stowell has written dozens of non-fiction and story titles for Usborne, on everything from space science and coding to the human body and, now, politics. She is now Editorial Director at Ladybird, Penguin Random House and is currently working on four children's fantasy novels.

What is politics?
Who's in charge?
What is a government?

Chapter 1: All kinds of governments
How societies have run themselves from Ancient Athens and Rome, to China, Europe and the Birth of the United States pf America

Chapter 2: Political systems
How does democracy actually work? How do countries get things done? And what about the alternatives - dictatorship, communism and even total anarchy?

Chapter 3: Elections and voting
Who can vote? Who can't? And is there a way to count all the votes up that's fair to everyone?

Chapter 4: Political change
How can people influence their governments in between elections - or in countries where elections don't happen at all?

Chapter 5: Political ideologies
What are the big ideas that politicians use to decide how to run a country? What's the difference between 'left' and 'right' in politics, and why does it matter? How can work out where YO are on the political spectrum?

Chapter 6: Big questions
Sometimes what matters most isn't who is in charge, or what they stand for, but what they're actually going to do to fix the world's problems...

Is there such a thing as 'human rights'?
Can war ever be justified?
Why are some countries poor?
What is terrorism?
What is prison for?
What is freedom of speech?
How does the media affect politics?
What is immigration?
Am I a feminist?
Who's responsible for the planet?
Is corruption inevitable?
How to argue
Learn to debate
What next?

Glossary
Index
Acknowledgements