Customer Reviews

Introduction to Comparative Politics

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This is a standard introductory comparative politics textbook that provides a solid background on a variety of countries. It discusses historical context, economic development, political institutions, electoral issues, etc. I found the tone of the book to be clear and non-irritating. However, there is much to say about these countries and some things inevitably get ignored or treated inadequately. One example that struck me especially was the treatment of the concept of a developmental state. It gets discussed somewhat in the chapter about Brazil while the chapter on Japan - the ultimate developmental state if there ever was one - pretty much ignores the concept altogether. This leads me to think that this book, although it provides significant background and some insights, has to be supplemented with other materials.

Wow. After paying 113 dollars for this book I thought I might as well skim through it and get familiar with its text for the upcoming semester. But through my flipping of the pages I stumbled upon a major error. On page 581 they placed the demographics of Brazil in the section of Iran. The two have no correlation and I feel that I should be given perfection for the money that I paid.

This book is excellent reading for anyone who is interested in learning about the politics of other countries around the world. It is very informative and straight to the point. It commands the attention of the reader.

very interesting book that got here on time learn a lot about different european and world governments. this book is an easy read and the service was great

The authors give an impressive critique of the political systems in several countries. The book has several parts. The first is the major democracies, with a chapter for each of the US, Britain, France, Germany, Japan and India. It is commendable that India is put into this group, as befits the world's largest democracy.

Another part describes the developing democracies, where the word developing is used in preference to imperfect, perhaps. But that's being too cynical. Anyhow, the countries covered are Russia, Brazil, Nigeria and Mexico.

The last part of the book is about the non-democracies. Iran is put into this category. But surely this is a misclassification. Iran has had several elections in 20 years, with competing political parties and changes of national government. The elections were with universal suffrage, with women having the vote, and a woman's vote is weighted the same as a man's. In the Middle East, this is no small thing. Certainly, the chapter on Iran describes many flaws in its government. But is it any worse than Nigeria? Others have said that in the Middle East, there are only two democracies, Israel and Iran.

If you have to take this class like me, then you'll probably have to buy this book no matter what--even if it sucks, which it does'nt.

I bought this book at a very low price... So I thought it was going to have lots of highlighting, tears, etc...To my astonishment it was new and the delivery was fast... Thanks!:)