Understanding Comparative Politics: A Framework for Analysis

by Kamrava; Mehran

• ISBN13: 9780415773058
• ISBN10: 0415773059
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2008-03-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Comparative politics has undergone significant theoretical changes in recent decades. Particularly since the 1980s, a new generation of scholars have revamped and rejuvinated the study of the subject. Mehran Kamrava examines current and past approaches to the study of comparative politics and proposes a new framework for analysis. This is achieved through a comparative examination of state and social institutions, the interactions that occur between them, and the poltical cultures within which they operate. The book also offers a concise and detailed synthesis of existing comparative frameworks that, up to now at least, have encountered analytical shortcomings on their own. Although analytically different in its arguments and emphasis from the current Mainstream" genre of literature on comparative politics

Author Biography

Dr. Mehran Kamrava is Director of the Centre for International and Regional Studies, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar

Table of Contents

List of tables	p. ix
Preface	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
Approaches to comparative analysis	p. 5
Theories of comparative politics: a brief overview	p. 7
The state	p. 8
The political system	p. 11
Bringing the state back in	p. 16
Conclusion	p. 20
The comparative study of politics	p. 23
A synthesis	p. 25
An alternative approach	p. 26
Conclusion	p. 33
States and social institutions	p. 35
State institutions	p. 35
Social institutions	p. 38
Conclusion	p. 42
A framework for analysis	p. 44
The state-in-society approach	p. 45
A sharper focus	p. 47
Analytical applications	p. 65
Conclusion	p. 66
State in comparative perspective	p. 69
Democratic states	p. 71
State classifications	p. 72
First World democracies	p. 75
New democracies	p. 80
Pseudo-democracies	p. 84
Conclusion	p. 86
Non-democratic states	p. 89
Inclusionary Populist Regimes	p. 89
Bureaucratic-authoritarian dictatorships	p. 96
Conclusion	p. 101
State-society interactions: revolution and democratization	p. 103
Revolutions	p. 105
Causes of revolutions	p. 106
State breakdown	p. 109
Revolutionary mass mobilization	p. 120
Conclusion	p. 135
Democratization	p. 138
Civil society and civil society organizations	p. 141
Democratic transitions	p. 148
Conclusion	p. 155
Conclusion	p. 157
Notes	p. 161
Bibliography	p. 183
Index	p. 208
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