Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of briefings
- List of fact files
- List of controversies
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface to the second edition
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- Key terms and concepts
- How to use this book
- Introduction
- PART I The state: origins and development
- PART II The polity: structures and institutions
- PART III Citizens, elites and interest mediation
- PART IV Policies and performance
- Postscript: How and what to compare?
- Glossary of key terms
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
How to use this book
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of briefings
- List of fact files
- List of controversies
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface to the second edition
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- Key terms and concepts
- How to use this book
- Introduction
- PART I The state: origins and development
- PART II The polity: structures and institutions
- PART III Citizens, elites and interest mediation
- PART IV Policies and performance
- Postscript: How and what to compare?
- Glossary of key terms
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
Summary
This book has many special features to help you work your way through the chapters efficiently and effectively and to understand them. This section shows you what these features are and how they help you work through the material in each chapter. Each chapter contains:
An introduction with a brief account of the topics it covers, so that you know what to expect. For example, chapter 2 includes:
Why study states?
The modern state and democracy
The rise of democratic states
Redistribution and welfare states
theories of states and society
Each chapter ends with a summary of its main findings and what we have learned from using the comparative approach to government and politics. For example, chapter 2 concludes with:
■ What have we learned?
This chapter has dealt with the difficulties of characterising and defining states, and with the historical development of modern states, especially democratic ones.
Democracy is a variable not a constant. Accepted ideas about what democracy is, and how it operates, are changing as standards rise.
■ The lessons of comparison
Although states across the globe, from the strongest to the weakest, are increasingly confronted with other powerful organisations, especially international business (MNCs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international agencies, they are still the most important political actors in the world.
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- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Foundations of Comparative Politics , pp. xxix - xxxiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009