Comparative Politics: Critical Concepts in Political Science

Comparative politics is the systematic study of all of the world’s political systems. Its focus is both the processes of politics (such as public opinion formation, interest group lobbying and political party activity) and the institutions of government (such as executives, legislatures and legal systems). All of these are viewed comparatively, in terms of how they differ, or are similar, from country to country or region to region. The collection begins with an introductory volume explaining the history and main approaches and controversies in the field: from formal-legalism; to developmentalism; to dependency theory, corporatism, and state-society relations; to political economy, rational choice and the new institutionalism. Titles also available in this series include, Fascism (December 2003, 5 Volumes, GBP595) and the forthcoming titles Peace Studies (2005, 4 Volumes, c.GBP495) and Terrorism (2005, 4 Volumes, c.GBP495).