Who's in charge

Here is my first review of a non fiction book. Everything about this book is yelling out the word quality. The title Who’s in charge? The cover layout. The foreword – something I don’t always read. The table of contents and finally the fabulous easy to read and engaging text on a complex and difficult subject – politics, leadership, governments, voting, democracy and so much more.

Using bright relevant graphics, different sized fonts, cartoons and catchy headings, Who’s in charge is a book that you will want to read from cover to cover in one go. Later you might return and dip into the sections that are of interest and there are so many all easy to find using the extensive index.

If you are trying to explain any aspect of government or politics to a young student then this is the perfect book. I especially enjoyed the pages that explain left or right, socialism versus conservatism. This is a book from the UK but it is full of international examples and since it was published in 2010 it is very up to date.

In conclusion I will quote from the foreword :

“Half the people in the world live in a democracy… but even in a democracy, millions of people have no effective voice at all. Perhaps they don’t vote, … or don’t follow the news so simply don’t know what’s going on. The truth is, politics only works when people put in the (small) amount of thinking needed to take part. It is messy, but often exciting … do you want to get involved, or just made to follow someone else’s rules?”