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Among the many tools available for teaching comparative politics, Gregory Mahler's text stands out for its unique exploration of concepts, structures, and illustrative cases. The first part of the book, after setting the stage with a discussion of comparison as a method of inquiry, focuses on the core institutions that affect politics within nations, as well as on political behavior and civil society. In Part 2, those same topics are systematically revisited as they interact in the context of nine detailed, up-to-date (through 2018) country studies.This well-integrated, cross-national, and accessible approach serves perfectly to provide students with the tools and perspectives that they need to better understand the diverse political systems of today's world.

Comparative Politics: A Practical Guide for a Globalizing World is perhaps the first to be written with an emphasis on case studies from the Global South and other alternative perspectives in comparative politics. This text focuses on themes and case studies that are often missing in more traditional comparative politics textbooks, and thus is best accompanied by other resources to give students a foundation in the fundamentals.

Balancing theory with application and featuring an engaging, student-friendly writing style, the tenth edition of COMPARATIVE POLITICS takes an in-depth look at fourteen countries, framed within broader discussions in the part-opening chapters on Industrialized Democracies, Current and Former Communist Regimes, and The Global South. The introduction establishes a comparative structure based on five themes: conflict, democratization, economic liberalization, globalization, and challenges, which are then explored for each country. With this uniquely effective text, students can gain an understanding of important political trends and concepts, an exposure to politics in a number of countries, and a desire to dig more deeply into the fascinating field of comparative politics.

'Comparative Politics: A Policy Approach is a unique text that integrates a comprehensive study of eight nations with critical policy issues facing those nations. The individual chapters on the United States, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, Japan, China, Mexico, South Africa, and Iraq provide a wide ranging examination of nations that are representative of the diversity in decision-making frameworks and political development in the international community. Comparative Politics is designed to guide the reader through a series of discussions in each nation's history, including: Key political milestones The structure of government The relationship of citizen to state The role played by political parties, groups and elections The shape and influence of the political elite The current status of the political economy The future direction of the nation in a global environment To further the goals of Comparative Politics, this book features in every chapter: Policy Briefs outlining the policy issues and debates in the forefront of the governing agenda''Point of Fact''items highlighting observations and sidebars on politics and life in each country Boxed features providing deeper commentary and factual information'

Comparative politics involves both a comparative study of the political structures and functions of national political systems of various states and also a comparative study of the political institutions at work within a single state. The former is called horizontal comparative studies and the latter is called vertical comparative studies. Traditionally, under comparative governments emphasis was placed only upon horizontal comparative studies. Comparative politics is emerging as a distinct subdiscipline of political science, defined by both substantive and methodological criteria. Substantively, research in comparative politics seeks to account for variation among political units on consequential social, political, cultural and economic outcomes. Comparative politics research places these outcomes on dimensions, for example a dimension that goes from a Hobbesian state of nature to political order, and seeks to account for the placement of a political unit in a specific time period on that dimension. The book is useful for the researchers, teachers, and students of different levels.

This volume breaks new ground in addressing a number of critical issues confronting contemporary comparative politics, including the increasing interdependence of countries in the era of enhanced globalization, different levels of political authority and structures of governance, the search for elegant parsimonious explanation and the possibilities for a real accumulation of knowledge. The contributions all problematize comparative politics in ways that have not been done before and add remarkable insight for scholars in the field. This is highly recommended.'- Todd Landman, University of Nottingham, UK and author of Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics (Routledge 2000, 2003, 2008, 2016)'The challenges that comparative politics faces have, in most cases, been discussed as fragmented and separate treatments. Rarely are they presented systematically and in an encompassing manner, as in the present volume, which covers a variety of subdisciplines. The editors and contributors should be complimented for offering methodologists and empirical comparativists a structured and integrated volume in which the various challenges are not only discussed in depth, but also linked together, rather than in isolation.'- Daniele Caramani, University of Zurich, SwitzerlandWhat are the conceptual and methodological challenges facing comparative politics today? This informative book discusses four main challenges that create stress for disciplinary reproduction and advancement, while providing potential solutions.In seven chapters, the contributors cover the most pressing issues: the dissolution of the nation-state as the main objective of inquiry; the increasing complexity of concepts and methods; the capacity to accumulate knowledge; and the tensions between parsimonious and contextually rich explanations.Scholars and students of comparative politics, international relations and political science will be interested in the up-to-date overview of pertinent conceptual problems, as well as the possible ways forward. Practitioners and decision-makers will find the real-world examples provided in this book useful to their work.Contributors: D. Braun, O.Giraud, D. Jahn, D. Kuebler, M. Maggetti, S. Stephan

By revealing the contextual conditions which promote or hinder democratic development, Comparative Politics shows how democracy may not be the best institutional arrangement given a country's unique set of historical, economic, social, cultural and international circumstances. Addresses the contextual conditions which promote or hinder democratic development Reveals that democracy may not be the best institutional arrangement given a country's unique set of historical, economic, social, cultural and international circumstances Applies theories and principles relating to the promotion of the development of democracy to the contemporary case studies

Comparative Politics: Continuity and Breakdown in the Contemporary World is an exciting new core text for introduction to comparative politics courses, focusing on the dynamics of politics: modernization, revolution, coups and democratization.Unlike other texts, Comparative Politics integrates thematic and extensive country-specific material in each chapter, striking a unique balance between discussing a wide range of countries and civilizations in detail, whilst using shorter focused textboxes to clearly illustrate key thematic points.Key features and benefits include: explanations of core concepts such as state, nation, regime, legitimacy, modernization, globalization, revolution, and mass movements an introduction of key theoretical approaches such as institutionalism, structural functionalism, political culture, political economy, and game theory detailed coverage of democratization, advanced democracies, developing countries and communist and post-communist states a range of perspectives to present a nuanced view of the discipline and contemporary political developments case studies of individual countries including Germany, the United States, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Nigeria, Zaire/Congo, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Pakistan, India, Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the People's Republic of China country-focused textboxes giving a chronology of key developments, including the United Kingdom, France, Afghanistan, and Kosovo. Extensively illustrated throughout with maps, photographs, tables and explanatory boxes, Comparative Politics is an innovative core text, and essential reading for all students of Comparative Politics.

Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure is a revised second edition of the volume that guided students and scholars through the intellectual demands of comparative politics. Retaining a focus on the field's research schools, it now pays parallel attention to the pragmatics of causal research. Mark Lichbach begins with a review of discovery, explanation and evidence and Alan Zuckerman argues for explanations with social mechanisms. Ira Katznelson, writing on structuralist analyses, Margaret Levi on rational choice theory, and Marc Ross on culturalist analyses, assess developments in the field's research schools. Subsequent chapters explore the relationship among the paradigms and current research: the state, culturalist themes and political economy, the international context of comparative politics, contentious politics, multi-level analyses, nested voters, endogenous institutions, welfare states, and ethnic politics. The volume offers a rigorous and exciting assessment of the past decade of scholarship in comparative politics.

′Bara and Pennington′s edited volume successfully fills a huge void in the market for introductory textbooks to comparative politics which previously offered either descriptions of political processes and systems or overviews of the methodology of comparative analysis. By applying major political science theories to overviews of the core elements of political systems, the authors both enhance our understanding of these elements and provide readers an excellent introduction to comparative explanation′ - Dr David Howarth, University of Edinburgh ′What is distinctive about this authoritative and comprehensive book on comparative politics is the way in which it is underpinned throughout by a theoretical analysis centred on a new institutionalist approach′ - Professor Wyn Grant, University of Warwick ′Comparative Politics takes a fresh and original approach to the field… it examines the role of structures, rules and norms in regulating the individual and collective behaviour of political actors. Each chapter provides a critical bibliography and key questions which will be particularly useful for students approaching Comparative Politics for the first time. Altogether this is a comprehensive and useful read which I warmly recommend′ - Ian Budge, Professor Emiritus Professor of Government, University of Essex ′This is a most useful book. Teachers of comparative politics often scramble around, with out-of-date textbooks and photocopies of more or less compatible articles. Here is a new book that gives an up-to-date, comprehensive and systematic introduction to the major strands of institutional thought and applies these to the major institutions, processes and policy areas. It will be a great help for many of us, academics and students alike′ - Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Copenhagen This book provides a distinctive new introduction to the study of comparative politics at undergraduate level. Rich in case study material and global in coverage, Comparative Politics sets out the basic theoretical and methodological foundations for studying different political systems as well as the key structures and actors of which they are comprised. Part One explores the nature of comparative methodology and introduces students to the major theoretical paradigms that seek to explain the operation of institutions in democratic states and facilitate comparison across different political systems. Part Two examines the institutional structures of the modern state, outlining the key features such as the electoral systems and territorial and functional divisions of government across a range of modern states. Part Three analyzes the role of key actors, such as voters and parties, interest groups and social movements, the bureaucracy and the judiciary. This book will be an essential primer for students on first-year courses in comparative government and politics as well as introductory courses in political science concepts and methods. Judith Bara is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary, University of London and Research Fellow in Government, University of Essex. David S. Bell is Professor of French Government and Politics and Head of Social Studies and Law at the University of Leeds. Jocelyn Evans is Reader in Politics at the European Studies Research Institute, University of Salford. Catherine Needham is Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. Brendan O′Duffy is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. Mark Pennington is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. David Robertson

Starting from the principal-agent perspective, this book offers a new analysis of government. It interprets political institutions as devices designed to solve the omnipresent principal-agent game in politics. In other words how to select, instruct, monitor and evaluate political agents or elites so that they deliver in accordance with the needs and preferences of their principal: the population.This book explores whether there are any evolutionary mechanisms in politics which guide mankind towards the rule of law regime, domestically and globally. It combines a cross-sectional approach with a longitudinal one.Comparing the extent of the rule of law among states, using a set of data from 150 countries concerning political and social variables, the author seeks to understand why there is such a marked difference among states. Taking a state-centred perspective and looking at countries with a population larger than one million people during the post Second World War period, the book examines: The stability and performance of states The conditions for the rule of law regime: economic, social, cultural and institutional ones The evolution of governments towards rule of law Comparative Politics - The Principle-Agent Perspective will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, government, political theory and law.

Beginning with an introduction to the field of comparative politics, this clear and complete text moves on to explore new, innovative directions in the field. Leading scholar Howard J. Wiarda explores its main approaches, including political development, political culture, dependency theory, corporatism, indigenous theories of change, state-society relations, rational choice, and the new institutionalism. Wiarda addresses many hot issues in the field: Can democracy and human rights be transplanted from one culture to another? Is civil society exportable? What works in the effort to develop the poorer nations and what doesn't? Where are we headed with such frontier research issues as comparative environmental policy, women's rights, and gay rights? The book concludes with a stimulating discussion of whether the great systems debates of the past (socialism vs. capitalism, democracy vs. authoritarianism) are now over and points to some of the next important study and research frontiers. Students, professors, and general readers will all find Comparative Politics current, provocative, and well written—a truly balanced overview.

Now in a completely updated second edition, this textbook has become a favorite for the introductory undergraduate course in comparative politics. It features ten theoretically and historically grounded country studies that show how the three major concepts of comparative analysis - interests, identities, and institutions - shape the politics of nations. Throughout the presentation, countries appear in the context of a changing global order that creates challenges to each country's path of development. These challenges frequently alter domestic interests and identities, and force countries to find new institutional solutions to the problems of modern politics. Written in a style free of heavy-handed jargon and organized to address the concerns of contemporary comparativists, this textbook provides students with the conceptual tools and historical background they need to understand the politics of our complex world.

Introducing Comparative Politics: The Essentials is focused on core concepts and the big picture questions in comparative politics—Who rules? What explains political behavior? Where and why? Stephen Orvis and Carol Ann Drogus demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of commonly debated theories, structures, and beliefs and push students to apply their understanding. While detailed case studies can go in-depth on specific countries and political systems, this book distills its country material into the narrative, increasing global awareness, current-event literacy, and critical-thinking skills. Adapted from the authors'Introducing Comparative Politics, Fifth Edition, The Essentials version offers the same framework for understanding comparative politics in a briefer format, allowing you to teach the course the way you want to teach it.