黑料传送门

Comparative politics is a crucial field within political science that employs political theories and analytical methods to conduct cross-sectional comparisons of political phenomena across multiple countries, regions, and domains. As indicated by its title, "Comparing Democracies" this textbook examines the politics of modern democracies through comparison. It explores the extent to which the politics of different countries or domains share commonalities and differences, and how these commonalities and distinctive features can be explained using political theories. As the title "Democratic Countries" indicates, the focus is on democratic nations in Asia, Europe, and the Americas (North and South).
 
Unlike studies of specific countries or fields, or general political science, this book was written with the hope that readers will learn the essence of comparative politics—that "you cannot know without comparing"—as demonstrated in the comparative politics of democratic nations presented here. Therefore, the explanations in this book compare multiple countries and fields within actual domains to reveal commonalities and differences. The topics covered range from areas long emphasized in comparative politics—such as party politics, parliamentary politics, and electoral politics—to newer fields gaining rapid attention in recent years, like judicial politics. It also includes areas like state formation, religion, and culture, which are less common in traditional textbooks but hold high interest for students.
 
The authors vary widely in their regions of specialization (Asia, Europe, America), research methods (institutional analysis, quantitative analysis, experiments, political history), age, background, and affiliations. Drawing on our classroom experience teaching comparative politics and related fields to students, we agreed that a comparative politics text was needed that focuses on democracy while bridging empirical political science with political history and political sociology research. We created this book through repeated discussions. While striving for accessible explanations, the book incorporates cutting-edge research papers, serving as a bridge to the field for graduate students and faculty. Unlike some international comparative politics textbooks that focus solely on country-by-country or institution-specific (e.g., elections/parliaments) explanations or theory-driven approaches, this book connects these concepts to actual political dynamics, enabling readers to understand them in the real world. This style of text is uncommon; it resembles a math or science reference book containing fundamental theorems and practice problems. Indeed, it includes both simple problems with explanations and larger problems requiring discussion.
 
One topic deliberately omitted from this book is the debate on the decline of democracy. This issue is an important area that garners significant interest from both students and faculty. However, to fully develop this discussion would require delving quite deeply into the explanation of authoritarianism. We left it to the reader to judge whether our decision to omit it—to avoid creating a "shallow" text incapable of thorough explanation—was the right choice. This text can be used by students from first-year undergraduates up to master's level, depending on their interests.
 

(Written by ITO Takeshi, Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences / 2025)