Comparative Politics

• Covers all the core areas of comparative politics, allowing the book to be used on a variety of modules.
• Expert contributors provide a diverse range of perspectives to offer students a full and sophisticated account of the subject.
• A whole section is devoted to theories and methods to help students develop a conceptual understanding of comparative politics.
• Empirical data and examples from both developing regions and advanced industrial countries are included throughout the book.
• Student learning is aided by excellent learning features within the text and a wealth of additional resources provided on the accompanying Online Resource Centre.

New to this edition

• The second edition has been fully updated and features more in depth coverage of national identity, nation building and nationalism, democratization, constitutional principles, and party positioning.
• Chapter 14: 'Interest associations' has been expanded to include trade unions and networks of decision making.
• In light of the global financial crisis concepts of deglobalization and economic nationalism are newly examined in chapter 24: 'Globalization and the nation state'.

Readership: First, second and third year undergraduates undertaking a module in comparative politics typically taught as part of a political science degree.

Edited by Daniele Caramani, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of St Gallen, Switzerland

"An extraordinarily ambitious book by an impressive roster of accomplished authors. They cover, in an authoritative way, a range of important topics in comparative politics. There is sufficient material here to please teachers of many different types of course. " - Michael J. Laver, New York University

"This second edition updates and expands the remarkable achievement of this user-friendly textbook. It strikes an unmatched balance between analytics and empirics, methods and theories, structures, institutions and actors. Simply the best textbook on comparative politics. " - Stefano Bartolini, European University Institute

"A very impressive and up-to-date edited volume which covers the developments of comparative politics, its theory and method, and a large number of substantive themes. It is well conceived, well executed and written by an impressive team of contributors. " - Paul Webb, University of Sussex

"The first edition of this groundbreaking text already incorporated the latest teaching aids, ancillary online material and a wealth of factual and statistical data. Besides updating these, the second edition has been expanded to cover trade unions and networks of decision-making, and reviews the progress of globalization in light of the world financial crisis. A thoroughly up to date and comprehensive text, which teachers and analysts as well as students will benefit from reading. " - Ian Budge, University of Essex

Review(s) from previous edition

"Daniele Caramani has assembled a star-studded group of contributors. This will be a major textbook. As in previous works, Caramani has worked particularly hard on assembling data which will be of use to all students of comparative government - and their teachers. - Iain McLean, Professor of Politics, Oxford University

Introduction
Section I: Theories and methods
1: H. C. Klaus von Beyme: The evolution of comparative politics
2: Guy Peters: Approaches in comparative politics
3: Hans Keman: Comparative research methods
Section II: The historical context
4: Gianfranco Poggi: The nation-state
5: Peter Mair: Democracies
6: Paul Brooker: Authoritarian regimes
Section III: Structures and institutions
7: Amie Kreppel: Legislatures
8: Wolfgang C. Muller: Governments and bureacracies
9: Alec Stone Sweet: Constitutions and judicial power
10: Michael Gallagher: Elections and referendums
11: John Loughlin: Federal and local government institutions
Section IV: Actors and processes
12: Richard S. Katz: Political parties
13: Daniele Caramani: Party systems
14: Roland Erne: Interest associations
15: James Bickerton and Alain G. Gagnon: Regions
16: Hanspeter Kriesi: Social movements
17: Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel: Political culture
18: Herbert Kitschelt and Philipp Rehm: Political participation
19: Pippa Norris: Political communication
Section V: Public policies
20: Christoph Knill and Jale Tosun: Policy making
21: Kees van Kersbergen and Philip Manow: The welfare state
22: Jorgen Goul Andersen: The impact of public policies
Section VI: Current issues
23: Simon Hix: The EU as a new political system
24: Georg Sorensen: Globalization and the nation-state
25: Peter Burnell: Promoting democracy