Organized thematically around important questions in comparative politics, Introducing Comparative Politics, Fourth Edition by Stephen Orvis and Carol Ann Drogus integrates a set of extended case studies of 11 core countries into the narrative. Serving as touchstones, the cases are set in chapters where they make the most sense topically—not separated from theory or in a separate volume—and vividly illustrate issues in cross-national context. The book’s organization allows instructors flexibility and gives students a more accurate sense of comparative study. In this edition, a brand new chapter on Contentious Politics covers ethnic fragmentation, social movements, civil war, revolutions, and political violence. New case studies on this topic include the Occupy and Tea Party movements in the US; Zapatista rebellion in Mexico; Boko Haram in Nigeria; and; and revolutions in China and Iran. The chapter on States and Identity has been substantially revised to better introduce students to the concept of identity and how countries handle identity-based demands. Case studies include nationalism in Germany; ethnicity in Nigeria; religion in India; race in the US; gender in Iran; and sexual orientation in Brazil. Content on states and markets, political economy, globalization, and development has all been consolidated into a new Part III of the book, focusing in a sustained way on economic issues.

For Introducing Comparative Politics: The Essentials, the driving force is the pluralist, objective stance on introducing students to core concepts in Comparative Politics. Authors Stephen Orvis and Carol Ann Drogus introduce key comparative questions while providing equal strengths and weaknesses of commonly debated theories, structures, and beliefs that push students beyond memorization of country profiles and ever-changing statistics and generate in-class debate over key concepts used in the science of comparative politics. While detailed case studies can go in-depth on specific countries and political systems, Introducing Comparative Politics: The Essentials, distills its country material into paragraph-long examples woven seamlessly into the narrative of the text, increasing diverse global awareness, current-event literacy, and critical-thinking skills.

Organized thematically around important questions in comparative politics—who rules? what explains political behavior? where and why?—Introducing Comparative Politics, Fifth Edition by Stephen Orvis and Carol Ann Drogus, integrates a set of extended case studies of 11 core countries directly into the narrative. Serving as touchstones, the cases are placed within the chapters where they make the most sense topically—not separated from the theory or in a separate volume—and vividly illustrate issues in cross-national context. The book’s hybrid organization gives students a more holistic view of comparative politics.

Introducing Comparative Politics: The Essentials is organized thematically around the essential questions in comparative politics—Who rules? What explains political behavior? Where and why? Adapted from the authors’ Introducing Comparative Politics, Fifth Edition, The Essentials version offers the same framework for understanding comparative politics in a briefer format. Stephen Orvis and Carol Ann Drogus introduce key comparative questions while providing equal strengths and weaknesses of commonly debated theories, structures, and beliefs that push students and generates in-class debate over key concepts used in the science of comparative politics. While detailed case studies can go in-depth on specific countries and political systems, Introducing Comparative Politics: The Essentials distills its country material into the narrative, increasing global awareness, current-event literacy, and critical-thinking skills. The book's organization allows you to teach the course the way you want to teach it.

This accessible introduction to comparative politics offers a fresh, state-centered perspective on the fundamentals of political science.

This brief, lively, and well-written text sparks students' interest by focusing on current trends, issues, and controversies in the field. Through this focus, Wiarda gives students an overview of the field, traces its history and development, and surveys newer approaches in a sequential and systematic fashion.

Explores the importance of comparative politics, discusses different comparative methods, investigates the big issues of today and looks forward to the key challenges for comparative politics over the next century.