Principles of Comparative Politics offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to comparative inquiry, research, and scholarship. In this thoroughly revised Third Edition, students now have an even better guide to cross-national comparison and why it matters. The new edition retains a focus on the enduring questions with which scholars grapple, the issues about which consensus has started to emerge, and the tools comparativists use to get at the complex problems in the field. Updates to this edition include a new intuitive take on statistical analyses and a clearer explanation of how to interpret regression results; a thoroughly-revised chapter on culture and democracy that includes a more extensive discussion of cultural modernization theory and a new overview of survey methods for addressing sensitive topics; and a revised chapter on dictatorships that incorporates a principal-agent framework for understanding authoritarian institutions. Examples from the gender and politics literature have been incorporated into various chapters, and empirical examples and data on various types of institutions have been updated. The authors have thoughtfully streamlined chapters to better focus attention on key topics. Explore online resources: https://edge.sagepub.com/principlescp3e

The radical interdependence between humans who live together makes virtually all human behavior conditional. The behavior of individuals is conditional upon the expectations of those around them, and those expectations are conditional upon the rules (institutions) and norms (culture) constructed to monitor, reward, and punish different behaviors. As a result, nearly all hypotheses about humans are conditional – conditional upon the resources they possess, the institutions they inhabit, or the cultural practices that tell them how to behave. Interaction Models provides a stand-alone, accessible overview of how interaction models, which are frequently used across the social and natural sciences, capture the intuition behind conditional claims and context dependence. It also addresses the simple specification and interpretation errors that are, unfortunately, commonplace. By providing a comprehensive and unified introduction to the use and critical evaluation of interaction models, this book shows how they can be used to test theoretically-derived claims of conditionality.

The radical interdependence between humans who live together makes virtually all human behavior conditional. The behavior of individuals is conditional upon the expectations of those around them, and those expectations are conditional upon the rules (institutions) and norms (culture) constructed to monitor, reward, and punish different behaviors. As a result, nearly all hypotheses about humans are conditional – conditional upon the resources they possess, the institutions they inhabit, or the cultural practices that tell them how to behave. Interaction Models provides a stand-alone, accessible overview of how interaction models, which are frequently used across the social and natural sciences, capture the intuition behind conditional claims and context dependence. It also addresses the simple specification and interpretation errors that are, unfortunately, commonplace. By providing a comprehensive and unified introduction to the use and critical evaluation of interaction models, this book shows how they can be used to test theoretically-derived claims of conditionality.

Adapted from the groundbreaking bestseller Principles of Comparative Politics, Third Edition, Foundations of Comparative Politics presents a scientific approach to the rich world of comparative inquiry, research, and scholarship, providing students with a guide to cross-national comparison and why it matters to them. This condensed, accessible format introduces students to the key questions in comparative politics, using brief insights from tools such as decision, social choice, and game theory to help them understand clearly why some explanations for political phenomena are stronger than others.

Adapted from the groundbreaking Principles of Comparative Politics, now in its third edition, Foundations of Comparative Politics presents a scientific approach to the rich world of comparative inquiry, research, and scholarship, providing students a guide to cross-national comparison and why it matters to them. Foundations introduces students to the key questions in comparative politics using tools such as decision, social choice, and game theory to help them understand clearly why some explanations for political phenomena are stronger than others. The core material of Principles has been condensed by almost 40% into a briefer, more accessible format that not only resonates with students but also allows instructors to more easily cover all material in a single semester. Fourteen chapters have been updated and pared down to present only the most necessary information enhanced with plentiful visual features and connections to real-world examples.

This new edition has been thoroughly updated to include an intuitive take on statistical analyses and a clearer explanation of how to interpret regression results. There is a revised chapter on culture and democracy that includes a more extensive discussion of cultural modernization theory and a new overview of survey methods for addressing sensitive topics. Examples from the gender and politics literature have been incorporated into various chapters, and empirical examples and data on various types of institutions have been updated.