Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure brings together leading political scientists to assess the research schools that direct scholarship in comparative politics. It examines rational choice theory, culturalist analysis, and structuralist approaches, by applying them to the study of electoral politics, social movements and revolutions, political economy and the state. The essays return analysis to basic questions concerning the development of t… More >>
Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure
Unless you are a master’s or PhD student specializing solely in comparative politics, don’t read this book. It was assigned to my comparative politics class (master’s level) and everyone hated it. I trudged through 50 pages until I just couldn’t take it anymore. Very poorly written and vague, but drenched in academic-sounding details.
Lim’s “Doing Comparative Politics” and Landman’s “Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics” are much more clearly written and easier to understand.
Rating: 1 / 5
This book definitely looks like a good introduction to Comparative Politics. However, the Table of Contents posted on this book’s site here is not the table of contents of the book that will be sent to you. Knowing that, I regret having bought through Marketplace. Overall, my experience with Amazon has been consistently satisfactory, and I will continue to shop with the company, but I am disappointed by the false advertising here, and I hope Amazon changes the advertised table of contents.
Thank you.
Rating: 1 / 5
While a great compliation of leading political scientists, this book assumes a high level of proir familiarity with the topic matter. For the novice reader, this book was way over my head. For experts, I can not see why they would be reading a book by various authors as opposed to reading the works directly from the theorists cited.
Rating: 3 / 5
This is a great piece of work. The essays are short and concise. If you plan on taking graduate exams, START with this book to find out how to carve up the discipline. Read this book about 1 week before your exam, you won’t be sorry.
This is also a book with theory applications. The chapters on structures and rational choice are particularly strong in that vein. This is also a book you will want to own so you can mark it up.
Rating: 5 / 5