This excellent textbook, an introduction to the study of New Zealand politics by a well-known and respected political scientist, has been reprinted and revised repeatedly since 1994. This updated edition is designed to incorporate the major changes that have occurred to the New Zealand political system between 1997 and 2003, including the continuing adjustment to MMP and the return of Labour to power in 1999. The updating has been carefully orchestrated to retain the book's original virtues - there is still one voice throughout, hence the book remains lucid and very accessible to the target audience of undergraduates; it puts our politics into a single, coherent, theoretical context; each chapter's subject matter is put into historical perspective, enabling readers to get a sense of the evolutionary nature of politics, and the contexts that drive the changes. The 'Further Reading' sections at the end of each chapter have been revised. This is the only textbook on the market that will include the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council, the new S Supreme Court, the change of National leadership and Donna Awatere-Huata's dismissal from ACT. Richard Mulgan is a former professor at Otago and Auckland universities and now divides his time between the Waitangi Tribunal and Newcastle, Australia. He is the author of a number of important books on New Zealand politics. He was a member of the Royal Commission on the Electoral System which recommended MMP. Peter Aimer, Political Studies, University of Auckland, is a leading member of the team which has been publishing groundbreaking studies of New Zealand elections since 1990 and is also the author of a history of NAC.