Why are the countries of the world governed so differently? How did this diversity of political orders come about? Will liberal capitalism spread farther around the globe in the 21st century? These are the questions that guide this new introductory text to comparative politics. Cast through the lens of ten historically grounded country studies, it illustrates and explains how the three major concepts of comparative political analysis—interests, identities, and institutions—shape the politics of nations. This textbook provides students with the conceptual tools and historical background they need to understand the politics of today's complex world.

Contributors: Jeffrey Kopstein, Mark Lichbach, Peter Rutland, Arista Cirtautas, Andrew Gould, Robert VU. Bullock, Stephen E. Hanson, Yu Shan Wu, Anthony Gill, Rudra Sil, Valli Nast, Michael Bratton