The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics: (Oxford Handbooks)

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics offers a critical survey of the field of empirical political science through the collection of a set of chapters written by 48 top scholars in the discipline of comparative politics. Part I includes chapters surveying the key research methodologies employed in comparative politics (the comparative method; the use of history; the practice and status of case-study research; the contributions of field research) and assessing the possibility of constructing a science of comparative politics. Parts II to IV examine the foundations of political order: the origins of states and the extent to which they relate to war and to economic development; the sources of compliance or political obligation among citizens; democratic transitions, the role of civic culture; authoritarianism; revolutions; civil wars and contentious politics. Parts V and VI explore the mobilization, representation and coordination of political demands. Part V considers why parties emerge, the forms they take and the ways in which voters choose parties. It then includes chapters on collective action, social movements and political participation. Part VI opens up with essays on the mechanisms through which political demands are aggregated and coordinated. This sets the agenda to the systematic exploration of the workings and effects of particular institutions: electoral systems, federalism, legislative-executive relationships, the judiciary and bureaucracy. Finally, Part VII is organized around the burgeoning literature on macropolitical economy of the last two decades.

Table of Contents:
Part I. INTRODUCTION 1: Carles Boix & Susan C. Stokes: Introduction Part II. THEORY AND METHODOLOGY 2: Robert J. Franzese Jr: Multicausality, Context-Conditionality, and Endogeneity in Comparative Politics 3: James Mahoney & Celso M. Villegas: Historical Inquiry and Comparative Politics 4: John Gerring: The Case Study: What it is and What it Does 5: Elisabeth Jean Wood: Field Research 6: Adam Przeworski: Is the Science of Comparative Politics Possible? 7: Robert H. Bates: From Case Studies to Social Science: A Strategy for Political Research 8: Elinor Ostrom: Collective Action Theory Part III. STATES AND STATE FORMATION: POLITICAL CONSENT 9: Hendrick Spruyt: War, Trade and State Formation 10: Russell Hardin: Compliance, Consent, and Legitimacy 11: Liah Greenfeld & Jonathan Eastwood: National Identity 12: Ashutosh Varshney: Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflicy Part IV. POLITICAL REGIMES AND TRANSITIONS 13: Christian Welzel & Ronald Inglehart: Mass Beliefs 14: Barbara Geddes: #What Causes Democratization? 15: Filippo Sabetti: Democracy and Civic Culture 16: Ronald Wintrobe: Dictatorship: Analytical Approaches Part V. POLITICAL INSTABILITY, POLITICAL CONFLICT 17: Steven Pincus: Rethinking Revolutions: A Neo-Torquevillian Perpective 18: Stathis N. Kalyvas: Civil Wars 19: Sidney Tarrow & Charles Tilly: Contentious Politics and Social Movements 20: Mark I. Lichbach & Helma G. E. de Vries: Mechanisms of Globalized Protest Movements Part VI. MASS POLITICAL MOBILIZATION 21: Carles Boix: Emergence of Parties and Party Systems 22: Herbert Kitschelt: Party Systems 23: Anne Wren & Kenneth M. McElwain: Voters and Parties 24: Frances Hagopian: Parties and Voters in Emerging Democracies 25: Susan C. Stokes: Political Clientelism 26: Pippa Norris: Political Activism: New Challenges, New Opportunities Part VII. PROCESSING POLITICAL DEMANDS 27: G. Bingham Powell Jr.: Aggregating and Representing Political Preferences 28: Rein Taagepera: Electoral Systems 29: David Samuels: Separation of Powers 30: John Ferejohn, Frances Rosenbluth & Charles Shipan: Comparative Judicial Politics 31: Pablo Beramendi: Federalism 32: Kaare Strom and Benjamin Nyblade: Coalition Theory and Government Formation Part VIII. GOVERNANCE IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 33: Raymond M. Duch: Comparative Studies of the Economy and the Vote 34: James E. Alt & Shanna S. Rose: Context-Conditional Political Budget Cycles 35: Matthew E. Carnes & Isabela Mares: The Welfare State in Global Perpective 36: Phil Keefer: The Poor Performance of Poor Democracies 37: Jose Maria Maravall: Accountability and the Survival of Governments 38: Timothy Frye: Economic Transformation and Comparative Politics

About the Author :
Carles Boix is Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He has written the books Political Parties, Growth and Equality (Cambridge University Press, 1998) and Democracy and Redistribution (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Both books won the American Political Science Association Award for the best book on political economy. Boix has also published articles in leading journals such American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, International Organization, and World Politics. Susan Stokes: PhD, Stanford University, 1988. John S. Saden Professor of Political Science and director of the Yale Program on Democracy. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the Russell Sage Foundation.

Review :
`Review from previous edition Two visionary editors -- who see clearly where research in comparative politics is heading -- and a star-studded cast of authors who are acknowledged masters of their fields make this Oxford Handbook an accurate compass for those who wish to be brought to the frontiers of comparative research. ' David D. Laitin, James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor of Political Science at Stanford University