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Chapter 1
Chapter 2

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An introduction to comparative politics should be a window onto the real world of comparative inquiry, research, and scholarship. At last, a groundbreaking text gives students meaningful insight into how cross-national comparison is actually conducted, and why it matters: the enduring questions that scholars grapple with, the issues about which consensus has started to emerge, and the tools comparativists use to get at the complex and interesting problems at the heart of the field.

Beginning with a clear and straightforward discussion of the comparative and scientific methods, each chapter outlines the debates about the political phenomena that drive current research, such as state failure, the economic and cultural determinants of democracy, or the effects of regime type and electoral system.

The authors show students how comparativists construct and test theories, applying the principles of the scientific method and simple game theory to a wide variety of examples and cases. Students won’t get lost in detail they’ll never use or remember and instead learn exactly why the variations across institutional structures and functions are important.

The book’s outstanding pedagogy includes:

• Chapter opener overviews to summarize key points from the text;
• Bolded key terms and a marginal glossary to help students identify and manage concepts;
• Rich and comprehensive data, helpfully schematized in more than 250 tables and figures;
• An excellent photo and map program to highlight the book’s thematic and substantive goals;
• End of chapter lists of key concepts, with page references;
• End of chapter problem sets of 5-10 problems each to help students work through the comparative puzzles and game theory examples;
• A comprehensive bibliography;
• Appendix materials to support chapter problems as well as encourage further research.

Preface
List of Tables, Figures, and Boxes
List of Maps

Chapter 1. Introduction
Overview of the Book
The Approach of this Book
Key Concepts

Chapter 2. What is Science?
Introduction
The Comparative Method
An Introduction to Logic
Science and Falsificationism
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 3. What is Politics?
The Exit, Voice and Loyalty Game
Solving the Exit, Voice, and Loyalty Game
Evaluating the Exit, Voice and Loyalty Game
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 4. The Origins of the Modern State
What is a State?
The Contractarian View of the State
The Predatory View of the State
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 5. Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy
Democracy and Dictatorship in Historical Perspective
Classifying Democracies and Dictatorships
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 6. The Economic Determinants of Democracy
Classic Modernization Theory
A Variant of Modernization Theory
Some More Empirical Evidence
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 7. Cultural Determinants of Democracy
Classical Cultural Arguments: Mill and Montesquieu
Does Democracy Require a Civic Culture?
Religion and Democracy
Experiments and Culture
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 8. Democratic Transitions
Bottom-Up Transitions to Democracy
Top-Down Transitions to Democracy
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 9. Does Democracy Make a Difference?
Introduction
The Effect of Regime Type on Government Performance
Selectorate Theory
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 10. Group Decision-Making and Democracy
Condorcet's Paradox
Median Voter Theorem
Arrow's Theorem
Varieties of Democratic Institutions
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 11. Parliamentary, Presidential, and Mixed Democracies: Making and Breaking Governments
Introduction
Classifying Parliamentary, Presidential, and Mixed Democracies
Making and Breaking Governments: Parliamentary Democracies
Making and Breaking Governments: Presidential Democracies
Making and Breaking Governments: Mixed Democracies
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 12. Elections and Electoral Systems
Introduction
Elections: An Overview
Proportional Electoral Systems
Mixed Electoral Systems
An Overview of Electoral Systems around the World
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 13. Social Cleavages and Party Systems
Political Parties: What are they and what do
Party Systems
Where do Parties Come From?
Types of Parties: Social Cleavages and Political Identity Formation
Number of Parties: Duverger’s Theory
Conclusion

Chapter 14. Institutional Veto Players
Federalism
Bicameralism
Judicial Review
Veto Player Theory
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Chapter 15. The Effect of Varieties of Democracy
Representation
Economic Performance
Ethnic Conflict
Democratic Survival
Conclusion
Key Concepts
Exercises

Bibliography
Glossary
Appendix
Index

"As a discipline, we are becoming increasingly ambitious in our desire to close the gap between political science as taught to undergraduates, and political science as practiced by researchers. Clark, Golder, and Golder have developed a valuable textbook toward that goal. This is a book that will help students develop the capacity to think systematically, rigorously, and critically, while simultaneously introducing them to the most compelling problems of comparative politics."

- Kathleen Bawn, University of California, Los Angeles

"Principles of Comparative Politics provides a clear and rigorous explanation of the scientific method as applied to comparative politics. The great strength of this book is that it differs from the standard approach of examining a series of important countries (usually Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States) one at a time. Instead, the authors provide a method of analysis that applies to the study of within-country relationships wherever they might occur. Their problem-oriented focus (democratization, identity politics, conflict, regime stability) serves to engage students and to help them understand political phenomena in a variety of different social, economic, and political contexts."

- James A. Caporaso, University of Washington

"The authors have set the standard for a new generation of undergraduate political science texts. Drawing on contemporary approaches to the study of politics, Principles of Comparative Politics provides an accessible, yet theoretically and empirically rigorous, account of the study of comparative politics that firmly emphasizes the science in political science. Simply put, this text brings undergraduate education in comparative politics up to speed with the academic field."

- Clifford J. Carrubba, Emory University

"I am incredibly impressed by this book. One of its great strengths is that the authors not only provide a valuable summary of current knowledge about comparative politics, but they also advance it through their own analysis. In doing so, the authors have provided an enormous public good to the rest of the discipline. In fact, even though the text is aimed at undergraduates, it makes for a wonderful review of the discipline for anyone."

- Joshua Tucker, New York University

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 is 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 is 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 .

Instructor's Resources available for adopters!

For adopters: A testbank, PowerPoint lecture slides, and instructor’s manual with syllabi, discussion questions, a solutions manual for the problem sets, and graphics from the text.

http://college.cqpress.com/instructors-resources/principlesCP/

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