Comparative Politics: Classic and Contemporary Readings

Comparative Politics: Classic and Contemporary Readings brings together major articles and book chapters from the field of comparative politics, including both classic pieces and more recent contributions that have significantly advanced research in the field. The selections represent major theoretical schools of thought for addressing research questions in comparative politics, giving students a clear sense of how thinkers differ in understanding the causes of major events in world politics. An excellent stand-alone text, Comparative Politics: Classic and Contemporary Readings is also a perfect companion to the editors' textbook, Comparative Politics: Integrating Theories, Methods, and Cases, Second Edition.

J. Tyler Dickovick is the Grigsby Term Associate Professor of Politics at Washington and Lee University.
Jonathan Eastwood is the Laurent Boetsch Term Associate Professor of Sociology at Washington and Lee University.

SECTION I: QUESTIONS, CONCEPTS, AND COMPARATIVE POLITICAL ANALYSIS

Chapter 1. The Comparative Approach: An Introduction
Diamond, Jared. 1997. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton.
Acemoglu, Daron and James Robinson. 2012. Why Nations Fail. New York: Crown Business.
Collier, David, & Steven Levitsky. 1997. "Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research," World Politics 49(3): 430-451.

Chapter 2. Theories, Hypotheses, and Evidence
Popper, Karl. 1972. Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press
King, Gary, Robert Keohane, and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mahoney, James and Celso Villegas. 2007. "Historical Enquiry and Comparative Politics," in Carles Boix and Susan Stokes, eds., Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, pp. 73-89. New York: Oxford University Press.

SECTION II: THE STATE, DEVELOPMENT, DEMOCRACY, AND AUTHORITARIANISM

Chapter 3. The Modern State
Bates, Robert H. 2001. Prosperity and Violence: The Political Economy of Development. New York: W.W. Norton.
Weber, Max. 1946. Essays in Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Esping-Andersen, Gøsta. 1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Chapter 4. Development and Political Economy
Friedman, Milton. 1989 "Using the Market for Social Development," Cato Journal 8(3): 567-579.
Fukuyama, Francis. 1995. Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. New York: Free Press.
Kohli, Atul. 2004. State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter 5. Democracy and Democratization
Schmitter, Philippe O., and Terry Lynn Karl. 1991. "What Democracy Is ... and Is Not," Journal of Democracy 2(3): 75-88.
Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1959. "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy" American Political Science Review 53(1): 69-105.

Chapter 6. Authoritarian Regimes and Democratic Breakdown
Acemoglu, Daron, and James Robinson. 2006. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Levitsky, Steven, and Lucan Way. 2002. "The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism," Journal of Democracy 13(2): 51-65.
Moore, Barrington. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Boston: Beacon Press.

SECTION III: INSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT

Chapter 7. Constitutions and Constitutional Design
Elazar, Daniel. 1987. Exploring Federalism. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Hirschl, Ran. 2007. Towards Juristocracy: The Origins and Consequences of the New Constitutionalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Chapter 8. Legislatures and Legislative Elections
Pitkin, Hannah. 1972. The Concept of Representation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Morgenstern, Scott. 2002. "Explaining Legislative Politics in Latin America", pp. 413-445 in Scott Morgenstern and Benito Nacif, eds. 2002. Legislative Politics in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter 9. Executives
Mainwaring, Scott, and Matthew Soberg Shugart. 1997. "Juan Linz, Presidentialism, and Democracy: A Critical Appraisal," Comparative Politics 29(4): 449-471.
Lijphart, Arend. 2004. "Constitutional Design for Divided Societies," Journal of Democracy 15(2): 96-109.
Jackson, Robert and Carl Rosberg. 1984. "Personal Rule: Theory and Practice in Africa," Comparative Politics 16(4): 421-442.

Chapter 10. Political Parties, Party Systems, and Interest Groups
Madison, James. 1961 [1787]. No. 10: The Same Subject Continued: The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection. In The Federalist Papers, ed. Clinton Rossiter, 77-83. New York: New American Library.
Chhibber, Pradeep and Ken Kollman. 2004. The Formation of National Party Systems: Federalism and Party Competition in Canada, Great Britain, India, and the United States. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

SECTION IV: POLITICS, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE

Chapter 11. Revolutions and Contention
Gurr, Ted. 1970. Why Men Rebel. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Skocpol, Theda. 1979. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kuran, Timur. 1991. Now Out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of 1989. World Politics 44(1): 7-48.

Chapter 12. Nationalism and National Identity
Anderson, Benedict. 1991[1983]. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso.
Greenfeld, Liah. 1992. Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Laitin, David. 2007. Nations, States, and Violence. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wimmer, Andreas. 2013. "States of War: How the Nation-State Made Modern Conflict," Foreign Affairs, Online Edition, November 7, 2013.

Chapter 13. Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
Htun, Mala. 2004. Is Gender Like Ethnicity? The Political Representation of Identity Groups. Perspectives on Politics 2(3): 439-458.
Van Cott, Donna Lena. 2005. From Movements to Parties in Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter 14. Ideology and Religion in Modern Politics
Fukuyama, Francis. 1989. "The End of History," The National Interest (Summer).
Huntington, Samuel P. 1992. "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs 72: 22-49.
Gill, Anthony. 2008. The Political Origins of Religious Liberty. New York: Cambridge University Press.

SECTION V: THE COMPARATIVE-INTERNATIONAL NEXUS

Chapter 15. Comparative Politics and International Relations
Naim, Moises. 2003. "The Five Wars of Globalization," Foreign Policy (January/February): 29-37.
Blinder, Alan. 2006. "Offshoring: The Next Industrial Revolution?" Foreign Affairs 85(2): 113-128.
Hardin, Garrett. 1968. "Tragedy of the Commons," Science 162 (3859): 1243-1248.