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Introduction to Comparative Politics: Political Challenges and Changing Agendas, 7th Edition

Mark Kesselman, Joel Krieger, William A. Joseph

Copyright 2016
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Introduction to Comparative Politics: Political Challenges and Changing Agendas 7th Edition by Mark Kesselman/Joel Krieger/William A. Joseph

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Overview
Meet the Authors
What's New
Features
Table of Contents
Pricing

Overview

Updated to reflect today's political climate, the seventh edition of INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE POLITICS offers a country-by-country approach that allows students to fully examine similarities and differences among countries and within and between political systems. Each chapter offers an analysis of political challenges and changing agendas within countries and provides detailed descriptions and analyses of the politics of individual countries. The text offers a condensed narrative and student-friendly pedagogy, such as marginal key terms and questions that will help them make meaningful connections and comparisons about the countries presented. This edition consists of 13 country case studies, as well as a case study on the European Union, providing an interesting sample of political regimes, levels of economic development, and geographic regions.

Meet the Authors

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Mark Kesselman

Mark Kesselman is the senior editor of the International Political Science Review and professor emeritus of political science at Columbia University. His research focuses on the political economy of French and European politics. His publications include THE AMBIGUOUS CONSENSUS (1967), THE FRENCH WORKERS MOVEMENT (1984), THE POLITICS OF GLOBALIZATION: A READER (2012), and THE POLITICS OF POWER (2013). His articles have appeared in The American Political Science Review, World Politics and Comparative Politics.

Joel Krieger

Joel Krieger is the Norma Wilentz Hess Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College. He is author of REAGAN, THATCHER, AND THE POLITICS OF DECLINE (Oxford University Press, 1986), along with BRITISH POLITICS IN THE GLOBAL AGE (Oxford University Press, 1999). He is the editor-in-chief of THE OXFORD COMPANION TO COMPARATIVE POLITICS (Oxford University Press, 2013).

William A. Joseph

William A. Joseph is professor of political science and department chair at Wellesley College. He is also an associate in research of the John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. His major areas of academic interest are contemporary Chinese politics and ideology, the political economy of development, and the Vietnam War. He is the editor of and a contributor to POLITICS IN CHINA: AN INTRODUCTION, 2nd EDITION (Oxford University Press, 2014).

What's New

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Country chapters have been shortened, resulting in a more streamlined text that strikes a balance between introducing comparative politics to students with little or no background in the subject while maintaining coverage of the complexity of institutions, issues, processes, and events.
Focus questions at the beginning of each major section in the country chapters introduce students to the section that follows.
Making Connections questions at the end of each feature box encourage students to link the topic of the box to the content of the chapter.
Where Do You Stand? questions at the end of each section in all chapters encourage students to develop and defend original arguments on controversial issues.
Given the unique importance of the European Union (EU) in shaping the political and economic life of its member states, the book has an additional chapter on the EU. The chapter is written by George Ross, one of the most distinguished specialists on European and EU politics.
Sub-sections on Environmental Issues, The Political Impact of Technology, and Youth Politics and the Generation Gap highlight the particular importance of these issues.
The text provides analysis of major recent political developments throughout the world. For example, the chapters on France, India, Iran, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States extensively analyze the implications of recent elections in these countries. The Russian Federation chapter analyzes the evolving tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The China chapter analyzes the rise to power of Xi Jinping, president of the People's Republic of China.

Features

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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.

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Part I: INTRODUCTION.
1. Introducing Comparative Politics.
Part II: CONSOLIDATED DEMOCRACIES.
2. Britain.
3. France.
4. Germany.
5. European Union.
6. Japan.
7. India.
8. The United States.
Part III: MIXED SYSTEMS.
9. Brazil.
10. Mexico.
11. South Africa.
12. Nigeria.
13. The Russian Federation.
Part IV: AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES.
14. Iran.
15. China.