Introducing Comparative Politics: Concepts and Cases in Context

I assigned this text for my comparative politics course because I've been very dissatisfied with the way comparative politics texts are generally designed. Most focus either on concepts and theories or on "cases", where the cases amount to a chapter-length discussion of the entire political history of some country. Instructors generally have to combine both books, and never have enough time to get through all of them. Students are also stuck learning a lot of historical facts that aren't directly related to the core concepts of comparative politics (E.g. "What was the name of the dynasty ruling China in 500 BCE?"). What is needed is a text that teaches the concepts while applying them to short, focused cases (where the cases are events, regimes, political figures or organizations, not whole countries), making all kinds of comparisons along the way. That's what the Drogus and Orvis text does. A lot of the cases are great, with some from smaller less "important" countries (like Tanzania, the Philippines, and South Korea). Several of the conceptual chapters are also high-quality. The chapters on the state, the varieties of democracy, and on political institutions are the best I think; in general the discussions of political economy are the weakest and are overly narrow. There are also some glaring factual mistakes and bad charts. For example on p. 330 there's a meaningless chart which purports to show that Iran actually scores better on democracy and human development than the Middle East average. A small distinction if deserved, but the info in the chart actually doesn't support the claim. In the political economy section as well I found that some claims were outdated or just wrong (e.g. saying that Brazil's "recent" economic growth has been weak). When my students shell out $80 for a text, I want them to trust the information presented, and I hope some of them keep the book for reference. But when publishers don't do a thorough job of fact-checking (and even basic copy editing) you can hardly blame students and teachers from feeling ripped off. This is not to pick on this text or specifically on CQ. This is a problem with many textbook publishers. I'll keep using this text, but I'll hope later editions are better.

My book was delivered promptly and in excellent condition. (still in the plastic wrap, no marks at all).

This book gives great perspectives on comparative politics. Overall I'd say this is the best book for a comparative politics class.