Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure, 2nd Edition

Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics

by Mark Irving Lichbach (Editor), Alan S. Zuckerman (Editor)

Comparative Rationality, Culture, and Structure is a completely revised second edition of the volume that guided thousands of scholars through the intellectual demands and gratifications of comparative political science. Retaining a focus on the field’s research schools, it now pays parallel attention to the pragmatics of causal research. Mark Lichbach begins with a review of discovery, explanation and evidence and Alan Zuckerman argues for explanations with social mechanisms. Ira Katznelson, writing on structuralist analyses, Margaret Levi on rational choice theory, and Marc Ross on culturalist analyses, assess developments in the field’s research schools. Subsequent chapters explore the relationship among the paradigms and current Joel Migdal examines the state; Mark Blyth adds culturalist themes to work on political economy; Etel Solingen locates the international context of comparative politics; Doug McAdam, Charles Tilly, and Sidney Tarrow address contentious politics; Robert Huckfeldt explores multi-level analyses; Christopher Anderson describes nested voters; Jonathan Rodden examines endogenous institutions; Isabela Mares studies welfare states, and Kanchan Chandra proposes a causal account of ethnic politics. The volume offers a rigorous and exciting assessment of the past decade of scholarship in comparative politics.

Genres: Political Science, Politics, Nonfiction

520 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 1997

Reviews

[Trashy Pit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good overview of different approaches to comparative politics

[Sequoyah · Rating 2 out of 5]

These comparative politics essayists couldn’t write a compelling, readable paper if they had a gun held to their head. Sciensifying the study of humanities was a mistake.

[Michael Gerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent introduction to the three dominant paradigms in Comparative Politics: rational-choice analysis, cultural analysis, and structural analysis. The contributors are widely-known in political science and allied disciplines and the book also presents a synthesis of the three approaches.

[Benemint · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some chapters were excellent.

[Katia Andronikidou · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview of different strands in comparative politics and a must-read for students using the comparative method in their studies.

[Kate Poz]

I read parts of this book for a graduate student seminar, I would like to return to it when I have more time.