Offering a comprehensive introduction to the comparison of governments and political systems, this is a new edition of one of the most well-established textbooks in the field of comparative politics, helping students to understand not just the institutions and political cultures of their own countries but also those of a wide range of democracies and authoritarian regimes around the world.

The book opens with an overview of key theories and methods for studying comparative politics and moves on to a study of major institutions and themes, such as the state, constitutions and courts, elections, voters, interest groups and political economy. In addition, two common threads run throughout the chapters in this edition – the reversal of democracy and declining trust in government – ensuring that the book fully accounts for the rapid developments in politics that have taken place across the globe in recent times.

Key features include:

• New and extended coverage of important topics such as authoritarian states, identities, ethnicity and political violence.
• A brand new chapter on political economy.
• An engaging new page design, in full colour for the first time.
• Packed with pedagogical features, including discussion questions, in-margin glossary definitions of key terms and double-page spreads for country profiles in each chapter.
• An enhanced companion website, now providing an extensive testbank of questions for lecturers.

Written by a team of experienced textbook authors, this book is an essential text for undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Comparative Politics, Comparative Government, Introduction to Politics and Introduction to Political Science.

Rod Hague was formerly Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Newcastle, UK.

Martin Harrop was formerly Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Newcastle, UK.

John McCormick is Professor of Political Science, Indiana University, Indianapolis, USA.