| | | List of Figures | | |
| | | Preface | | |
| 1 | | Introduction: What Is Comparative Politics? | | 1 |
| | | What Is Comparative Politics? | | 2 |
| | | Why Does Comparative Politics Focus on What Happens Inside Countries? | | 11 |
| | | What Is Politics? | | 13 |
| | | What Does It Mean to Compare? What Is a Comparativist? | | 17 |
| | | Why Compare? | | 19 |
| | | What Is Comparable? | | 22 |
| | | What Are the Advantages of the Comparative Method? | | 23 |
| | | By Way of a Conclusion: Method and Theory in Comparative Politics | | 26 |
| | | Questions | | 26 |
| Part 1 | | Doing Comparative Politics | | |
| 2 | | Comparing to Learn, Learning to Compare: A Primer on Comparative Methods | | 31 |
| | | Comparing and Critical Thinking | | 32 |
| | | Strategies of Comparing | | 33 |
| | | The Logic of Comparative Analysis | | 33 |
| | | Concrete Strategies of Comparative Analysis | | 46 |
| | | Conclusion | | 63 |
| | | Questions | | 63 |
| 3 | | Thinking Theoretically in Comparative Politics | | 67 |
| | | Why Study Theory? | | 67 |
| | | Theory in Comparative Politics | | 73 |
| | | Rationality: A Nontechnical Introduction | | 78 |
| | | The Structural Tradition | | 82 |
| | | The Cultural Tradition | | 88 |
| | | A "Hybrid" Tradition: Institutionalism | | 93 |
| | | Separation or Synthesis? | | 96 |
| | | Conclusion: Bringing Everything Together | | 97 |
| | More... | | |