Starting from the principal-agent perspective, this book offers a new analysis of government. It interprets political institutions as devices designed to solve the omnipresent principal-agent game in politics. In other words how to select, instruct, monitor and evaluate political agents or elites so that they deliver in accordance with the needs and preferences of their principal: the population. This book explores whether there are any evolutionary mechanisms in politics which guide mankind towards the rule of law regime, domestically and globally. It combines a cross-sectional approach with a longitudinal one. Comparing the extent of the rule of law among states, using a set of data from 150 countries concerning political and social variables, the author seeks to understand why there is such a marked difference among states. Taking a state-centred perspective and looking at countries with a population larger than one million people during the post Second World War period, the book examines: The stability and performance of states The conditions for the rule of law regime: economic, social, cultural and institutional ones The evolution of governments towards rule of law Comparative Politics - The Principle-Agent Perspective will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, government, political theory and law.

An outstanding group of internationally-renowned comparative political scientists provide a substantive introduction to comparative politics. Thematic in organisation, readers are guided through a comprehensive analysis of the core methods, theories, and concepts in comparative politics. An unrivalled amount of empirical material in the text and on the supporting website illustrates key similarities and differences of political systems inpractice. The wealth of empirical data also encourages students to go beyond the "what" of comparison to the "how". Combining cutting edge treatment of theories and truly global geographical coverage, this exciting textbook is essential reading for all comparative politics students.

This book examines the issues involved in the attempts to compare political systems, and discusses how the methods and results of comparative politics can be improved.

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics offers a critical survey of the field of empirical political science through the collection of a set of chapters written by 48 top scholars in the discipline of comparative politics

Combining the theoretical tools of comparative politics with the substantive concerns of environmental policy, experts explore responses to environmental problems across nations and political systems.

This collection reassesses rational choice theory, culturalist analysis, and structuralist approaches to comparative politics.

The field of comparative politics traditionally has been divided into two camps: on the one hand, quantitatively driven work on a broad scale; on the other, more qualitative area studies. This edited collection promotes a new approach to comparative politics that transcends the debate about the future of the discipline. The contributors' essays are innovative in their interweaving of case studies of the political situations in particular regions with the project of political theorizing. The chapters take as their points of departure such diverse topics as the liberal tradition in United States politics, the impact of drug-related violence on democratic stability in Colombia, and the relationship between poverty reduction and support for democracy in Mali, thereby resoundingly demonstrating the broad relevance of the volume's unifying theme: theoretically informed comparative analysis. Students of politics, from advanced undergraduates to practicing scholars, will find this volume useful in assessing, analyzing, and uniting the fields of comparative politics and political theory.

Now in a completely updated second edition, this textbook has become a favorite for the introductory undergraduate course in comparative politics. It features ten theoretically and historically grounded country studies that show how the three major concepts of comparative analysis - interests, identities, and institutions - shape the politics of nations. Throughout the presentation, countries appear in the context of a changing global order that creates challenges to each country's path of development. These challenges frequently alter domestic interests and identities, and force countries to find new institutional solutions to the problems of modern politics. Written in a style free of heavy-handed jargon and organized to address the concerns of contemporary comparativists, this textbook provides students with the conceptual tools and historical background they need to understand the politics of our complex world.