Arguing Comparative Politics - Hardcover

Stepan, Alfred

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199242704 ISBN 13: 9780199242702

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2001

Synopsis

This volume brings together articles by the one of the leading scholars in comparative politics written over the last thirty years in the field of comparative politics and in particular, the topic of the nature of contemporary democracy and its prospects. The volume begins with a personal analysis of the intellectual, and often political, reasons as to why and how Stepan chose to engage in certain critical arguments over the last thirty years. The volume is then divided into three sections each with a distinctive theme: state and society; constructing polities; and varieties of democracies.

The introduction and articles ask whether, both for intellectual and political reasons, there are strong grounds for questioning both Rawls and Huntington on religion and democracy, Riker on federalism, and Gellner on multi nationalism. The volume contains articles on civil society, political society, economic society, and a usable state. The possibility of multiple and complementary political identities is argued for. The incentive systems and political practices of the three macro constitutional frameworks for democratic government - parliamentarianism, presidentialism, and semi-presidentialism - are compared and contrasted.

About this title

Review:

It is quite useful to find so much interesting material concentrated in a single volume. There are, however, two substantive issues on which Stephan breaks new ground and which promise substantial future edifices: 1) the impact of world religious systems upon democracy; and 2) the prospects for federalism as a solution to political order in multinational democracies. (Government and Opposition)

One is constantly reminded when reading these chapters of how much richer comparative work can be when it is not just an abstract method of research but also possesses a component of human interaction built into the very processes of conceptualizing a problem and writing up the final results. (Government and Opposition)

There is something for almost everyone who enjoys arguing about politics and wonders why human beings have invented so many ways of practising and justifying this activity. (Government and Opposition)

The book is impressive in its empirical range. In what is a convincing argument for comparative politics, it covers virtually all corners of the world, from the established liberal democracies in the West to democratizing or consolidating democracies in Latin America and eastern Europe. In addition, Stepan's essays stand out for the bridges they construct between the empirical and theoretical debates. Whether focusing on political identities or institutions, or on the power of the state versus society, Stepan reveals an extraordinary capacity for selecting the problems relevant to contemporary democracies and arriving at agenda-setting findings ... an invaluable collection of essays. (Democratization)

A striking demonstration of Alfred Stepan's remarkable combination of analytic range and his career-long commitment to extracting novel insights through interviews with key actors. Big questions, fruitful comparisons, and agenda-setting findings. (David Collier, University of California, Berkeley)

About the Author:

Alfred Stepan is Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government at Columbia University. In his career he has also been Gladstone Professor of Government at Oxford University, the first Rector of Central European University, and the Director of Graduate Studies in Political Science at Yale University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the British Academy.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0199242704
• ISBN 13: 9780199242702
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384