Using case studies from sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and including such critical countries as South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and Egypt, Civil Society focuses on the processes and politics of dismantling "corporate" (state directed) economies and political systems in the Third Worl

This book discusses the major schools of thought or paradigms in comparative politics: development theory, political culture, dependency analysis, corporatism, state-society relations, political economy, theories of change, comparative public policy, institutionalism, and rational choice theory.

This text sees the new diversity of approaches as healthy and invigorating. The diversity in comparative politics over the past two decades has been reflected in prior editions of this book.

Civil Society focuses on the processes and politics of dismantling "corporate" (state directed) economies and political systems in the Third World. Howard Wiarda explores how this separation would create a move toward civil societies of free associability and democracy, as well as the limits to and pitfalls of this approach. The book examines case studies from sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and includes such critical countries as South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and Egypt.