Major changes to this edition
Chapter 1: Broadened to a review of the political, economic and social factors that help us compare, with an expanded section on classifying political systems.
Chapter 2: Includes new discussion of quasi-states and de facto states, and a new section on globalization and challenges to the state.
Chapter 3: Expanded coverage of e-democracy, liberal democracy, and civil liberties, and a new section on the contemporary problems facing democracies.
Chapter 4: Includes a new section on hybrid regimes, reorganized coverage of forms of authoritarian states, and an expanded closing section on corruption.
Chapter 5: Opens with a new section on the changing face of comparative politics.
Chapter 6: A substantial revision of the former Chapter 19 on comparative methods, with new material on empirical and normative approaches, and on political prediction.
Chapter 7: More focus on the relationship between constitutions and courts, with revised discussion on the character and durability of constitutions.
Chapter 8: Expanded discussion about the functions of legislatures, the nature of representation, and legislatures in authoritarian systems.
Chapter 9: Expanded coverage of semi-presidential and authoritarian systems, and new material on heads of state and government.
Chapter 10: Re-ordered content, with reduced discussion of new public management to make room for expanded coverage of e-government.
Chapter 11: Expanded coverage of unitary systems comes earlier in the chapter, and a new section compares unitary and federal systems.
Chapter 12: Includes new discussion of The Clash of Civilizations, and of the effect of the internet on political culture.
Chapter 13: Significantly re-ordered, with new discussion of the reasons why people participate in politics.
Chapter 14: Also significantly re-ordered, with expanded discussion of the role and effects of social media.
Chapter 15: Extended section on party systems moved to the beginning of the chapter, and new material injected on parties in authoritarian regimes.
Chapter 16: Includes more detail on election types, notably majority systems and proportional representation.
Chapter 17: Includes a new section on voter choice, with expanded coverage of voter turnout and of voters in authoritarian states.
Chapter 18: Includes new coverage of think-tanks, a reorganized discussion of channels of influence, and a review of social movements.
Chapter 19: formerly a chapter titled The Policy Process, this includes new coverage of the effects of the resource curse in poorer states.
This is a book designed to introduce students to the study of comparative politics.The goal of the new edition is the same as that of its predecessors: to provide a wide-ranging and accessible guide for courses and modules in this fascinating and essential sub-êld of political science.
As before, the book takes a thematic approach centred on liberal democracies and authoritarian states, and divides the chapters into three groups.
• The first group (Chapters 1-6) provides the foundations, with a review of key concepts followed by chapters on the state, democracies, authoritarian systems, theoretical approaches, and comparative methods.
• The second group (Chapters 7-12) focuses on institutions. It opens with a chapter on constitutions that assesses the power maps that help us make sense of how institutions work and relate to one another. This is followed by chapters on the major institutions, and a closing chapter on political culture that helps us understand the broader context within which they operate.
• The third group (Chapters 13-19) looks at wider political processes, beginning with a survey chapter on political participation and then at political communication, parties, elections, voters, and interest groups. The book ends with a chapter on the output of politics: public policy.
The addition of a new co-author inevitably results in more than the usual array of modiĉations. The challenge we set ourselves in this new edition was to remain true to the personality of its predecessors, and to meet the needs of students and instructors in many di˚erent settings while integrating fresh perspectives on the study of comparative politics.
There have been important changes in both content and approach:
Structure: The major structural change from the last edition lies in the ordering of the chapters: where those on institutions formerly came towards the end of the book, they have been moved to the middle, preceding the chapters on participation, communication, parties, elections, interest groups, and policy.We felt that it was important to begin with ‘broad view’ chapters before looking at institutions and at mobilization and participation. The former Chapter 19 on the comparative method has been transformed into a new and more detailed Chapter 6 on research methods, and all the chapters have been internally re-organized so as to improve their clarity.
Length: The phenomenon of textbooks that expand with each edition is well known, but ours remains one of the notable exceptions. The last edition was shorter than the one before, and – to sharpen the focus on key points - this new edition is again slightly reduced in length.
Features: Several improvements contribute to a clearer and more consistent presentation, including more and shorter deñitions of concepts, newĝures and tables designed to make complex data easier to absorb, new Focus features designed to treat stimulating topics within the text in more depth, an opening Preview and Overview for each chapter, and new summary sets of Key Arguments.
Classiĉation of political systems: We have retained the broad division into democracies and authoritarian regimes, while providing a more nuanced breakdown of each by using the Democracy Index maintained by the Economist, and the Freedom House ranking Freedom in the World.
Case studies: As with the last edition, this one focuses on a selection of case study states, enhanced in the new edition to provide greater political, economic, social, and geographical variety. Five new cases - Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, and Nigeria - have been added in order to expand coverage of Africa and Latin America, to complete the inclusion of all five members of the BRICS group, and to add two Muslim states.The cases are as follows:
| Brazil | India | South Africa |
| China | Iran | Sweden |
| Egypt | Japan | United Kingdom |
| European Union | Mexico | United States |
| France | Nigeria | Venezuela |
| Germany | Russia |
Writing and developing a book of this kind always involves the input and support of an extended team.The authors would particularly like to thank Steven Kennedy, who shepherded many earlier editions of the book and was the lynchpin for the changeover to a new line-up of authors; this was one of the last projects Steven worked on before his retirement in 2014, but Stephen Wenham and Lloyd Langman steered the book to completion with professionalism and good humour.The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers who provided much valuable feedback on the planned changes and theñished chapters. Last but not least, John McCormick sends heartfelt love and thanks to his wife Leanne and his sons Ian and Stuart for providing a critical support system.