Books in the Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics series

Post-Communist Party Systems examines democratic party competition in four post-communist polities in the mid-1990s: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. The book demonstrates various developments within the four countries with regard to different voter appeal of parties, patterns of voter representation, and dispositions to join other parties in legislative or executive alliances.

Despite the rapid urbanization of African societies, the socio-economic changes associated with urbanization are not having the political effects that many expected. This book contributes to understanding African urbanization, political behavior, and the ability of developing societies to transition away from clientelism.

Business Elections and Policymaking in Russia. Politics, social theory, history of ideas, Comparative politics, Russian, East European government, politics, policy

This is a 1994 collection of scholarly essays on state, society and politics in the Third World. The book is relevant to the growing 'state theory' literature in the social sciences and it puts forward a 'state-in-society approach' to the study of political development.

This book is about unemployment and European unification. It examines the consequences of each and their interconnections. Its central argument is that the European economy should be reformed but that it should retain many of its managed aspects and be wary of modeling itself on the United States.

This book examines the impact of legislative and political authority on the internal development of the European Parliament and the supranational party group system. This is done through an analysis of changes in the hierarchical structures that regulate the internal organization of the EP and the individual party groups.

This major study examines one of the most surprising developments in East Central European politics after the democratic transitions of 1989: the completely unexpected regeneration of the former communist parties. After the collapse of the communist regimes in 1989, these ruling communist parties seemed consigned to oblivion. However, confounding scholarly and popular expectations, all of these parties survived. Some have even returned to power. This in-depth, comparative study systematically analyzes the trajectories of four cases: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary (with additional examination of other communist party successors). Relying on extensive, and unprecedented, primary research, this analysis employs a consistent analytical framework that combines the peculiarities of the post-socialist cases with broad theoretical concerns of institutional analysis, democratic transitions and consolidation, and party politics.

This book investigates one of the oldest paradoxes in political science: why do mass political loyalties persist even amid prolonged social and economic upheaval? Drawing on archival materials and an original election database, this book explores this question by examining Hungary's path from pre- to post-communism.

Hale argues that ethnic identity is a cognitive uncertainty-reduction device with special capacity to exacerbate, but not cause, collective action problems. He applies this concept to illuminate separatism in the USSR and CIS, ultimately advancing a significant reinterpretation of nationalism's role in the USSR's break-up.

Using multiple methods and original data, this book develops a theory of everyday politics with respect to rules - procedural politics - and applies it to European Union integration and politics. It paints a much fuller picture of the role of rules in political life than is available in most existing work.

Kaplan explores the effect of globalization on Latin American economic policy-making. It investigates why left-leaning politicians from countries with high poverty and wage inequality adopt market-oriented policies. A new form of austerity politics has surfaced where politicians signal their good governance with budgetary discipline yet simultaneously direct spending to supporters.

The book, which is divided into two clear parts, examines how interim governments all around the world and throughout the 20th-Century have effected democratic regime changes. They are relevant for understanding the developments in places such as South Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and a host of other examples.

Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure is a revised second edition of the volume that guided students and scholars through the intellectual demands of comparative politics. 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 research: the state, culturalist themes and political economy, the international context of comparative politics, contentious politics, multi-level analyses, nested voters, endogenous institutions, welfare states, and ethnic politics. The volume offers a rigorous and exciting assessment of the past decade of scholarship in comparative politics.

This book explores the impact of economic crises and free-market reforms on party systems and political representation in contemporary Latin America. It explains why some patterns of market reform align and stabilize party systems, whereas other patterns of reform leave party systems vulnerable to widespread social protest and electoral instability. In contrast to other works on the topic, this book accounts for both the institutionalization and the breakdown of party systems, and it explains why Latin America turned to the Left politically in the aftermath of the market-reform process. Ultimately, it explains why this 'left turn' was more radical in some countries than others and why it had such varied effects on national party systems.

The fundamental question of political theory, one that precedes all other questions about the nature of political life, is why there is a state at all. This book describes the foundations of stateless societies, why and how states emerge, and the basis of political obligation.

How do democracies form and what makes them die? In a wide-ranging narrative of democracy's history in Europe, from 1830s Britain to Adolf Hitler's 1933 seizure of power in Weimar Germany, the book offers a re-interpretation of how stable political democracy is built, coming to the bold conclusion that democracy's historical adversaries, conservative political parties, shape democracy's viability.

The related subjects of political legitimacy and system support are key theoretical concerns of students of democracies. This book addresses these concerns through systematic analyses of the sources, distribution, and consequences of variations in support for key political institutions in one democracy, Canada.

What drives politics in dictatorships? Svolik explores two fundamental conflicts that shape the politics of dictatorships - the problems of authoritarian control and authoritarian power-sharing - and shows how they account for key outcomes in dictatorships, including their institutions and policies, as well as the survival of leaders and regimes.

In an effort to explain cross-national and temporal changes in employment outcomes, this book examines a political exchange between unions and governments, during which unions voluntarily agreed to pursue moderate wage settlements, while governments responded with an expansion of social policy transfers.

In the early 1990s, competitive elections in the Russian Federation signaled the end of the authoritarian political system dominated by a single political party. More than ten years and many elections later, a single party led by Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to end Russia's democratic experiment.

Using formerly unavailable archival sources, this book presents an explanation for the rise and subsequent collapse of the Soviet state, and explains how personal networks and elite identity served as informal sources of power that influenced state strength.

Why Bother? offers and tests a new theory about participation in politics and, in particular, why people vote and join protests. This book will appeal to students and scholars in political science, sociology, and social psychology and to members of the public who want to understand trends in political participation.

This book addresses the long-standing puzzle of how China's private sector manages to grow without secure property rights. Drawing on rich empirical evidence, this book challenges existing theories of property rights and growth, and shows that a selective property rights regime can generate and sustain economic growth and political stability.

This book focuses on some of the most important political-economic changes in advanced industrialized countries over the past two decades, namely, unemployment and the growth of inequality. Focusing on Northern Europe, the book explores the intersection of partisan politics, the international economy, and nationally specific institutions.

The book considers the accomplishments and agendas of comparative-historical research in the social sciences. It defines the distinctiveness of this type of research and explores its strengths in explaining important outcomes in the world.

Some rebel groups abuse noncombatant populations, while others exhibit restraint. Insurgent leaders in some countries transform local structures of government, while others simply extract resources for their own benefit. In some contexts, groups kill their victims selectively, while in other environments violence appears indiscriminate, even random. This book presents a theory that accounts for the different strategies pursued by rebel groups in civil war, explaining why patterns of insurgent violence vary so much across conflicts. It does so by examining the membership, structure, and behavior of four insurgent movements in Uganda, Mozambique, and Peru. Drawing on interviews with nearly two hundred combatants and civilians who experienced violence firsthand, it shows that rebels' strategies depend in important ways on how difficult it is to launch a rebellion. The book thus demonstrates how characteristics of the environment in which rebellions emerge constrain rebel organization and shape the patterns of violence that civilians experience.

This book, first published in 2005, is based on the key idea that social protection, both inside and outside the state, can be understood as protection of specific investments in human capital. It offers a systematic explanation of popular preferences for redistributive spending, the economic role of political parties and electoral systems, and labor market stratification.

Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism studies distributive politics: how parties and governments use material resources to win elections.

Exclusion by Elections studies how 'class identities' and 'ethnic identities' become salient in electoral politics, and examines the relationship between identity politics and inequality reduction. A discouraging theme emerging from the research is that inequality invites ethnic rather than class politics, and that ethnic politics makes it difficult to address inequality.

This volume focuses on the effects of the internationalization of national markets on domestic politics.