Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / Charles Boix, Susan C. Stokes -- Multicausality, context-conditionality, and endogeneity / Robert J. Franzese, Jr. -- Historical enquiry and comparative politics / James Mahoney & Celso M. Villegas -- The case study, what it is and what it does / John Gerring -- Field research / Elisabeth Jean Wood -- Is the science of comparative politics possible? / Adam Przeworski -- From case studies to social science : a strategy for political research / Robert H. Bates -- Collective action theory / Elinor Ostrom -- War, trade, and state formation / Hendrik Spruyt -- Compliance, consent, and legitimacy / Russell Hardin -- National identity / Liah Greenfeld & Jonathan Eastwood -- Ethnicity and ethnic conflict / Ashutosh Varshney -- Mass beliefs in comparative politics / Christian Welzel & Ronald Inglehart -- What causes democratization? / Barbara Geddes -- Democracy and civic culture / Filippo Sabetti -- Dictatorship : analytical approaches / Ronald Wintrobe -- Rethinking revolutions : a neo-Tocquevillian perspective / Steven Pincus -- Civil wars / Stathis N. Kalyvas -- Contentious politics and social movements / Sidney Tarrow & Charles Tilly -- Mechanisms of globalized protest movements / Mark I. Lichbach & Helma G.E. de Vries -- The emergence of parties and party systems / Carles Boix -- Party systems/ Herbert Kitschelt -- Voters and parties / A. Wren & Kenneth M. McElwain -- Parties and voters in emerging democracies / Frances Hagopian -- Political clientelism / Susan C. Stokes -- Political activism : new challenges, new opportunities / Pippa Norris -- Aggregating and representing political preferences / G. Bingham Powell, Jr. -- Electoral systems / Rein Taagapera -- Separation of powers / David Samuels -- Comparative judicial politics / John Ferejohn, Frances Rosenbluth & Charles Shipan -- Federalism / Pablo Beramendi -- Coalition theory and government formation / Kaare Strøm & Benjamin Nyblade -- Comparative studies of the economy and the vote / Raymond M. Duch -- Context-conditional political budget cycles / James E. Alt & Shanna S. Rose -- The welfare state in global perspective / Matthew E. Carnes & Isabela Mares -- The poor performance of poor democracies / Philip Keefer -- Accountability and the survival of governments / Jose Maria Maravall -- Economic transformation and comparative politics / Timothy Frye.