Comparing Political Regimes: A Thematic Introduction to Comparative Politics, Fourth Edition

Review "This is an extremely sophisticated and very insightful textbook on comparative politics. Its clear writing, underpinned by sustained analytic thinking, makes this book a top choice for introductory undergraduate courses. The book notably includes many useful tables and classifications of 195 countries in the world that will also be of much value to advanced researchers. Highly recommended." -- Erik Martinez Kuhonta, Director of the Institute for the Study of International Development and Associate Professor of Political Science, McGill University"This is an exceptional textbook. It treats the field of comparative politics very effectively, its broad coverage puts the entire world within reach of students, and it innovates at many points by offering fresh and revealing ways to consider the issues at stake." -- Bruce Morrison, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Western University Product Description Comparing Political Regimes provides a current and comprehensive empirical assessment of the world’s 195 sovereign states. Alan Siaroff analyses and classifies countries in terms of economic development, political evolution, and state strength, ultimately outlining and contrasting the aspects of four regime types: liberal democracies, electoral democracies, semi-open autocracies, and closed autocracies.The fourth edition explains institutional differences within democracies and autocracies respectively, including how regimes evolve in key countries and how this change is incremental. An invaluable reference for students to refer to, this book provides a thorough foundational introduction to the comparative politics of countries and contains several unique figures and tables on the world’s sovereign states. This new edition modifies the conceptual focus regarding some features of democracy and democratic party systems, expands on variations in autocracies, and adds a new chapter on the historical evolution of democracy, including key thresholds of representative democracy and levels of participation and competition at various historical junctures for all countries. About the Author Alan Siaroff is a professor in the department of political science at the University of Lethbridge.