Comparative Politics in Transition

COMPARATIVE POLITICS IN TRANSITION, Sixth Edition, combines a thematic framework with a country-by-country approach to provide a truly thoughtful and effective introduction to Comparative Politics.

About the Author :
John McCormick is Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Politics at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). He was educated at Rhodes University (South Africa), the University of London, and Indiana University, and has been a visiting professor at Exeter University and the University of Sussex in Britain, and at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. He has lived in, traveled to, or undertaken research in nearly 40 countries in North and Central America, Europe, Southeast Africa, and Southeast Asia. Before completing his Ph.D. in political science, he worked in the public sector for two environmental interest groups and was a consultant for a number of specialized agencies of the United Nations, including FAO and the UN Environment Program. His teaching and research interests lie in comparative politics and public policy, with particular interests in environmental policy, British politics, and the politics of the European Union. His other publications include EUROPEAN UNION POLITICS (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), EUROPEANISM (Oxford University Press, 2010), and CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN (Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd edition, 2006).

Review :
"I can only agree with the comments of Howard J. Wiarda. . . . John McCormick has succeeded in balancing 'scholarship with lively, readable writing. . . . [His] prose flows nicely, and he includes the most important comparative politics concepts while using a provocative and innovative approach. . . . When I first read the manuscript, I was astounded not only at how well he writes but also at the huge storehouse of information he has developed, usefully and coherently organized around his integrating theses and outline.' . . . [H]e seems to understand the undergraduate audience he is writing for and employs illustrative examples that students can relate to and use to grasp the underlying principles and concepts. Because he is the sole author of the text, John McCormick is able to maintain a consistent level of analysis and insights throughout the text." "I was very much impressed, and my students have been as well, with McCormick's 'different way of seeing the world.' For some time I had sensed, with the collapse of the 'second world, ' that the old way of dividing the countries of the world into 'three worlds, ' was becoming more irrelevant with each passing year. I did experiment with other typologies and systems of classification but found them to be unsatisfactory. What I especially like about McCormick's 'different way of seeing the world' is that he derives his six arenas of countries from differences in political (Freedom House rankings), economic (Economic Freedom Index rankings), and social (HDI rankings) variables. Differences in such variables make a lot of sense to students and help them to understand why a country belongs in this arena rather than another one." "The author has written a highly readable text covering the essential topics and issues students need to understand and retain." "The greatest strength of this book is the easy-to read nature of the writing, the use of the country-by-country approach, the in-depth coverage of the countries, the categorization of the countries and the treatment of Islam as a political system as well as a religion." "The part openers are one of the strongest aspects of the book. They provide a rich comparative element to the book in terms of conceptualization and theoretical material, which sets this text apart from books that are strictly country comparisons. The openers are well written and comprehensive, yet very accessible for the introductory-level reader. . . . [O]ne of the greatest assets of this book is that it is not a simple collection of country case studies. Throughout the book, the author draws comparisons between countries using a variety of methods, among these the various text boxes. In addition, the 'comparative exercises' overtly draw the attention of the student back to the fact that the objective of comparative politics is not simply to learn about a slew of countries, but to be able to make conceptual, structural, and institutional comparisons between them for the purpose of broader generalizations and theory-making."