Introduction to Comparative Politics

Written by a distinguished group of comparativists, this innovative text has been organized around levels of political development and themes to make comparative politics accessible and easy to understand. Readers can use the Geographic Setting sections in each chapter, as well as maps, tables, charts, photographs, and political cartoons to further their understanding of each country studied. The Fifth Edition has been completely redesigned to engage readers with additional pedagogy and color.

Mark Kesselman is professor of political science at Columbia University, where his research and teaching focuses on the political economy of advanced capitalism, with particular attention to French politics, the Left, and organized labor in Western Europe. Professor Kesselman received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has authored many scholarly articles in the AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW, COMPARATIVE POLITICS, and elsewhere. He also is author, coauthor, or editor of THE FRENCH WORKERS' MOVEMENT: ECONOMIC CRISIS AND POLITICAL CHANGE (1984), and EUROPEAN POLITICS IN TRANSITION (1992).

Joel Krieger is Norma Wilentz Hess Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College. His publications include BRITISH POLITICS IN THE GLOBAL AGE: CAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SURVIVE? (Polity, 1999), and REAGAN, THATCHER, AND THE POLITICS OF DECLINE (Oxford University Press, 1986). He also was editor-in-chief of THE OXFORD COMPANION TO POLITICS OF THE WORLD (Oxford University Press, 1993).

Bill Joseph is professor of political science at Wellesley College and an associate of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University. His major area of research is contemporary Chinese politics and ideology.

Christopher S. Allen is an associate professor at the University of Georgia, where he teaches courses in comparative politics and political economy. He has held research fellowships at the Harvard Business School, Johns Hopkins University, and from the German Marshall Fund. He is the editor of THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE GERMAN POLITICAL PARTY SYSTEM (Berghahn, 1999), and is working on a study of democratic representation in parliamentary and presidential systems.