Designed for introductory courses, Current Debates in Comparative Politics presents fifty-one readings drawn from major magazines and newspapers including The Economist, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Addressing theoretical, methodological, and practical issues, the selections include scholarly readings that introduce students to key debates in the field along with more informal readings--including one from The Onion and another on Stephen Colbert's notion of "truthiness"--that help students to engage with the material and see how it relates to their daily lives.

An excellent stand-alone text, Current Debates in Comparative Politics is also a perfect companion to the editors' textbook, Comparative Politics: Integrating Theories, Methods, and Cases (OUP, 2012), as its selections are organized thematically into fifteen sections that correspond to the chapters in the text. Each section includes a short introductory essay and discussion questions that guide students in their reading.

To package Current Debates in Comparative Politics with Comparative Politics: Integrating Theories, Methods, and Cases for use in your course, order using pkg. ISBN 978-0-19-939030-4.

J. Tyler Dickovick is Associate Professor of Politics at Washington and Lee University. He is the author of Decentralization and Recentralization in Developing Countries: Comparative Studies from Africa and Latin America (2011) and has published articles in many journals.

Jonathan Eastwood is Associate Professor of Sociology at Washington and Lee University. He is the author of The Rise of Nationalism in Venezuela (2006) and several articles and book chapters.

Each section ends with Discussion Questions.

Preface

Section 1: Critical Thinking and the Comparative Approach

The Importance of Critical Thinking
Lane Wallace, The Atlantic, May 29, 2009

The Underlying Tragedy
David Brooks, The New York Times, January 14, 2010

Scholarship and Statesmanship
Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Journal of Democracy, April 2005

Section 2: Theories, Hypotheses, and Evidence

I'm Very Interested in Hearing Some Half-Baked Theories
The Onion, November 9, 2005

Stephen Colbert's "truthiness" theory holds true
Phoebe Ho, Metronews.ca, August 16, 2012

What Do Scientific Studies Show?
Gary Gutting, The New York Times, April 25, 2013

Section 3: The Modern State

Where life is cheap and talk is loose
The Economist, March 17, 2011

Mexico Makes It: A Transformed Society, Economy, and Government
Shannon O'Neill, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2013

Rethinking the welfare state: Asia's next revolution
The Economist, September 8, 2012

Northern lights
The Economist, February 2, 2013

Section 4: Development

Uncultured: Mitt Romney don't know much about economic history
Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Foreign Policy, August 1, 2012

Romney Hasn't Done His Homework
Jared Diamond, The New York Times, August 1, 2012

Culture Matters--Just Not as Much as Romney Thinks
Charles Kenny, Bloomberg Business Week, August 1, 2012

Lions on the Move: 10 things you don't know about Africa's booming economy
Susan Lund and Arend van Wamelen, Foreign Policy, August 31, 2012

Section 5: Democracy and Democratization

The Arab Spring at One: A Year of Living Dangerously
Fouad Ajami, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2012

Burma's Tightrope
Aung Zaw, Foreign Policy, January 12, 2012

Development Won't Ensure Democracy in Turkey
Daron Acemoglu, The New York Times, June 5, 2013

Section 6: Authoritarianism

A Conversation with Lee Kuan Yew
Fareed Zakaria, Foreign Affairs, March/April 1994

Ethiopia's prime minister: The man who tried to make dictatorship acceptable
The Economist, August 25, 2012

In the Shadow of Chavez
Boris Munoz, The New Yorker, April 13, 2013

Next of Kim: North Korea, One Year Later
Victor Cha, Foreign Affairs, December 18, 2012

Section 7: Constitutions and Constitutional Design

So Who Are the Activists?
Paul Gewirtz and Chad Golder, The New York Times, July 6, 2005

Iraq's Federalism Quandary
Joost Hiltermann, Sean Kane, and Raad Alkadiri, The National Interest, February 28, 2012

The Rise of the Rest of India: How States Have Become the Engines of Growth
Ruchir Sharma, Foreign Affairs, September/October 2013

Section 8: Legislatures

Parliamentary Funk
Cameron Abadi, Foreign Policy, July 20, 2011

What makes a rubber stamp?
The Economist, March 5, 2012
Getting Majoritarianism Right
Timothy M. Meisburger, Journal of Democracy, January 2012

Getting Elections Wrong
Andrew Reynolds and John M. Carey, Journal of Democracy, January 2012

Section 9: Executives

Putin's Leadership Trap
Vladimir Frolov, The Moscow Times, April 14, 2013

Why Rouhani Won--And Why Khamenei Let Him: The Ahmadinejad Era Comes to an Auspicious End
Suzanne Maloney, Foreign Affairs, June 16, 2013

Drift and Confusion Reign in Indian Politics
Eswaran Sridharan, Current History, April 2013

Section 10: Interest Groups, Political Parties, and Party Systems

German Lessons
Clay Risen, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Winter 2010

In Defense of Partisan Politics
Pietro S. Nivola, The Brookings Institution, April 8, 2009

The Talk of China
Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, September 16, 2012

Section 11: Revolutions and Contention

Arab Spring, Chinese Winter
James Fallows, The Atlantic, July 24, 2011

Protests in Brazil: Digging Beneath the Surface
Elizabeth Leeds, Washington Office on Latin America, August 1, 2013

App-Powered Protests Put Democracy in Peril
Bessma Momani, Toronto Star, August 12, 2013

Section 12: Nationalism and Ethno-national Conflict

What the Olympics can teach us about nationalism
Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy, July 31, 2012

Language and nationalism: Catalonian confusion
The Economist, November 27, 2012

Shinzo Abe's Civic Nationalism
Kevin Doak, Center for Strategic and International Studies, May 15, 2013

Conflicts Without Borders
Stefan Wolff, The National Interest, April 25, 2008

Section 13: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity

Race in Brazil: Affirming a divide
The Economist, January 28, 2012

The Global Divide on Homosexuality: Greater Acceptance in More Secular and Affluent Countries
Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, June 4, 2013

Promoting Women's Political Representation Overseas
Sarah Bush, Scholars Strategy Network, January 2013

Section 14: Religion, Ideology, and Politics

Democratization Theory and the "Arab Spring"
Alfred Stepan and Juan J. Linz, Journal of Democracy, April 2013

In U.S.-China relations, ideology matters
Aaron Friedburg, Foreign Policy, July 1, 2011

The Future of History: Can Liberal Democracy Survive the Decline of the Middle Class?
Francis Fukuyama, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2012

Section 15: Comparative Politics and International Relations

It's a Flat World, After All
Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times Magazine, April 3, 2005

Why the World Isn't Flat
Pankaj Ghemawat, Foreign Policy, March 1, 2007

Migration and business: Weaving the world together
The Economist, November 19, 2011

Peace in the Twenty-First Century?
Bruce Russett, Current History, January 2010

Index

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