Principles of Comparative Politics

  The groundbreaking first edition of Principles of Comparative Politics offered the most comprehensive and up-to-date view of the rich world of comparative inquiry, research, and scholarship. Now, this thoroughly revised second edition offers students an even better guide to cross-national comparison and why it matters. The new edition retains its focus on the enduring questions with which scholars grapple, the issues about which consensus has started to emerge, and the tools comparativists use to get at the complex problems in the field. Improving organization and integrating the latest scholarship, important changes include:   • A new "Varieties of Dictatorship" chapter;   • Clearer headers signaling coverage of authoritarian regimes, and new sections highlighting resources on the study of authoritarianism;   • An expanded program of world maps showing key attributes of national political systems;   • Reorganization of the "What is Science?" chapter with a focus on the scientific method and reduced emphasis on Mill’s Methods;   • A streamlined "Problems with Group Decision Making" chapter that focuses on government formation and collapse as a principle-agent problem;   • Timely analysis of developments in the Middle East as part of the "Democratic Transitions" chapter including an examination of the use of coordinating devices and differences within the region focusing on outcomes and coalitions;   • Updates for current events, including coverage of late Bush and Obama era policies, war in Somalia, the intervention in Libya, and more.   The book’s outstanding pedagogy includes chapter opener overviews, bolded key terms and a marginal glossary, more than 250 tables and figures, numerous photos and maps, end of chapter problem sets, and new works cited and country-specific bibliographies.

Table of Contents:
PART ONE: WHAT IS COMPARATIVE POLITICS? Introduction What Is Science? What Is Politics? PART TWO: THE MODERN STATE: DEMOCRACY OR DICTATORSHIP? The Origins of the Modern State Democracy and Dictatorship: Conceptualization and Measurement The Economic Determinants of Democracy and Dictatorship Cultural Determinants of Democracy and Dictatorship Democratic Transitions Democracy or Dictatorship: Does it make a Difference? PART THREE: VARIETIES OF DEMOCRACY AND DICTATORSHIP Varieties of Dictatorship Problems with Group Decision Making Parliamentary, Presidential, and Semi-Presidential Democracies: Making and Breaking Governments Elections and Electoral Systems Social Cleavages and Party Systems Institutional Veto Players PART FOUR: VARIETIES OF DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL OUTCOMES Consequences of Democratic Institutions

About the Author :
William Roberts Clark is associate professor of political science at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Capitalism, Not Globalism, and his articles have appeared in American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, Political Analysis, and European Union Politics, among other journals. He has been teaching at a wide variety of public and private schools (William Paterson College, Rutgers University, Georgia Tech, Princeton, New York University, and the University of Michigan) for over a decade. Matt Golder was previously assistant professor of political science at Florida State University. He is the author of articles which have appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Electoral Studies, and Political Analysis among other journals. He has taught classes on comparative politics, advanced industrialized democracies, quantitative methods, and European politics at the University of Iowa, Florida State University, and the University of Essex. Sona Nadenichek Golder was previously assistant professor of political science at Florida State University. She is the author of The Logic of Pre-Electoral Coalition Formation, and has published articles in the British Journal of Political Science, Electoral Studies, and European Union Politics. She teaches courses on European politics, democracies and dictatorships, comparative institutions, game theory, and comparative politics at Florida State University and was a Mentor-in-Residence for the 2007 Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models Summer Program at UCLA .