Introduction to Comparative Politics: Political Challenges and Changing Agendas

The book's framework involves four key themes: A Globalizing World of States, Governing the Economy, the Democratic Idea, and the Politics of Collective Identities. These themes enable students to organize the study of individual countries that are covered in the book and to compare institutions and processes among countries.

Each country chapter is made up of five consistent section heads to facilitate cross-national comparison and student understanding: a chapter-opening vignette illustrating an important feature of the country's political patterns; a description of the country's past and current political economy; a discussion of the major institutions of governance and policy-making; analysis of political representation and participation; and a review of major current issues that confront the country.

Sidebar boxes in each country chapter highlight three interesting and provocative aspects of politics: a profile feature highlights biographies of important political leaders; a Global Connection feature provides links between domestic and international politics; a U.S. Connection feature compares an important feature of political institutions with its American counterpart.

The book classifies the 13 countries in three categories: Consolidated democracies (Britain, France, Germany, Japan, India, and the United States); Mixed Systems (Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Nigeria, and The Russian Federation); and Authoritarian regimes (Iran and China). New to this edition is a chapter on the European Union.