Encyclopaedia of Comparative Analysis and International Politics (4 Volumes)

Volume 1: Comparative politics emerged as a distinct field of political science in the United States in the late 19th century and the subsequent evolution of the field was driven largely by research associated with US universities. The influence of US academia certainly declined from its high point in the two decades following World War II. Indeed, by the late 20th century, comparative politics was a truly international enterprise. In the last few decades, the discipline of comparative politics has experienced three main and defining changes: in its object of enquiry; in the methods it now deploys to gather data and test its empirical findings; and in the assumptions (about human and political behavior) it employs to build any theoretical propositions. In doing so, comparative politics has come of age, becoming a key contributor to empirical (as opposed to normative or philosophical) political enquiry. For organizational and administrative reasons, comparative politics is likely to remain a separate field in the discipline and in US departments in the near future. But from an epistemological point of view, comparative politics is turning into a true science of politics in the same way economic theory replaced the study of national economies at some point in the past. This book focuses on the past and present of comparative politics, the role of theory, and the use of methods. The book focuses on the formal, public sphere of politics and power relations through a systematic study and comparison of types of government and political systems. In the discipline of comparative politics, it also explores how and why nations change, how and why governments compare to governments in different parts of the world, and patterns and irregularities among political systems. This book discusses several crucial questions that comparative political scientists address. These questions also form part of the basis of the current volume. The book contains studies on the theory and methods used in gathering data and evidence, and also focuses on the concepts of states, state formation, and political consent. Political regimes, political conflict, mass political mobilization, and political instability are other topics examined in this book. The book is also devoted to determining how political demands are processed and viewing governance using a comparative perspective. Volume 2:  Comparison is man s instinctive tendency which impels him to appraise his own conduct vis-a-vis those of others. He is ever keen to know how people around him live, behave and act. The study of Comparative Politics is at the heart of contemporary Political Science. The real world of governing and politics is too important to permit social scientists to manipulate an institution here and a law there just to see what might happen. It may sometimes appear to the populations of some poor countries that wealthier governments and international organisations are indeed experimenting with their political lives, as one reform after another is imposed on them from abroad. Comparative politics is an important aspect of political science in that instead of studying how this country functions, it studies why other countries around the world are the way they are. Comparative politics is central to the development of political theory. For most sciences, experimentation is the way to test theory, but for political science, comparison is the principal method. Political science can be an experimental science only rarely, and then almost always in highly contrived circumstances. Researchers are sometimes able to have students or other more or less willing subjects participate in games or experiments, but those exercises tend to be far removed from most real questions about governing. Therefore, comparing what happens when different countries, for their own reasons, modify constitutions, or party systems, or whatever, provides useful information about the probable consequences of different political orders. This book examines the issues involved in the attempts to compare political systems, and discusses how the methods and results of comparative politics can be improved. This book will serve as an immensely helpful book for students and researchers providing an excellent introduction to the comparative method giving an authoritative overview over the research process. Volume 3: The study of politics is concerned with the description and analysis of the manner in which power is obtained, exercised and controlled, the purpose of which it is used, the manner in which decision are made and the context in which those decisions take place. Politics also means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state. Comparative Politics has, therefore become a field of growing importance in all the countries. More recently, modern Social Science has increased our power to observe and compare systematically empirical world of facts around us and to subject many of these facts and processes to qualitative measurement and logical and mathematical analysis. At the same time, the behavioral Sciences have given us a good deal of new and partly verified information as to how people think, feel, perceive and act individually and in a group. Presenting contributions written by world-wide experts in the field, this book provides an accessible introduction to comparative methodology. This book compiles studies concerned with behavior, institutions, processes, ideas and values present in more than one country. It searches for those regularities and patterns, those similarities and differences between more than one nation state that help clarify the basic nature, working and belief of regimes. Comparative Politics studies a broader range of Political activity, including governments and their institution as well as other forms of organization not directly related to national government; for example ,tribes, communities, associations, Unions etc. Students of politics, from advanced undergraduates to practicing scholars, will find this book useful in assessing, analyzing, and uniting the fields of comparative politics and political theory. Volume 4: The study and practice of international relations is interdisciplinary in nature, blending the fields of economics, history, and political science to examine topics such as human rights, global poverty, the environment, economics, globalization, security, global ethics, and the political environment. Considerations about international politics represent a discussion beyond personal experience for most people as well as a bit of an exclusive topic for chosen ones. Even the mediated contact can be illusive: watching war on TV resembles a movie, a purchase of imported goods looks like a purchase of domestic products, customs officers follows regulations and the same is done by policemen in native towns; however this means something different. International politics is specific due to something else; it is a special functioning of power in the world political system. However, today, this does not only relate to the policy among countries, though this part of international politics with the help of which sovereign governments try to ensure their security and to fulfill many and sometimes conflicting objectives, is the most important. Although international relations have taken on a new significance because of our increasingly interconnected world, it is certainly not a new concept. Historically, the establishment of treaties between nations served as the earliest form of international relations. The human being not only lives as a cultural creature in the conditions of cooperation and division of labor with other individuals, but also among groups and institutions. Thus a network of relations is created which is getting continuously thicker due to demographic growth and technological development. Part of this network represents political relations. Political relations are created during the process of society structuring according to an axis power. This book contains world-wide contributions from professionals and experts from different fields of international relations which will help students understand and present the concepts of International Politics more competently, with the real-world practices. This book is core reading for political scientists, historians, anthropologists, geographers and any other observer interested in the international affairs and politics.