SAGE Handbook of Comparative Politics

′Editors Landman and Robinson have compiled an excellent tour d′horizon of comparative politics. Distinguished contributors explore theoretical and methodological issues as well as examine the critical substantive domains that animate today′s comparativists. Graduate students and academics will want to keep this volume on their book shelf′ - Professor Mark Irving Lichbach, University of Maryland

′The SAGE Handbook of Comparative Politics is a major new resource for scholars of comparative politics, and of political science more generally. The Handbook covers the field with admirable thoroughness, but does not sacrifice depth for breadth. The chapters are written by notable scholars who provide rich discussions of their topics, and help to move the sub-discipline forward′ - B. Guy Peters, Professor, University of Pittsburgh

The SAGE Handbook of Comparative Politics presents; in one volume, an authoritative overview of the theoretical, methodological and substantive elements of comparative political science. The 28 specially commissioned chapters, written by renowned comparative scholars, guide the reader through the central issues and debates, presenting a state-of-the-art guide to the past, present and possible futures of the field.

The Handbook is divided into three parts. The first considers comparative methodologies and reviews the interactions between various sub-fields of comparative politics: political economy; political sociology; area studies; international relations; and institutional analysis. The second section examines nine ′classic′ issues of concern to comparativists, including government formation, political behaviour and democratization. In the final section, nine new and emerging areas of comparative research are considered, such as terrorism, electoral corruption, human rights and regional integration.

The SAGE Handbook of Comparative Politics is an essential resource for researchers in political science, political sociology, political economy, international relations, area studies and all other fields with a comparative political dimension.

Todd Landman is a Reader in the Department of Government and Director of the Centre for Democratic Governance at the University of Essex. His research interests include human rights; international relations; and quantitative and qualitative political methodology. He is author of Studying Human Rights (Routledge 2006), Protecting Human Rights (Georgetown 2005), and Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics (Routledge 2000, 2003, 2008); co-author of Measuring Human Rights (Routledge 2009), Governing Latin America (Polity 2003), and Citizenship Rights and Social Movements (Oxford 1997, 2000); and co-editor of the Sage Handbook of Comparative Politics (2009). He has also authored numerous articles, reports, review essays, book notes, and other publications, reviews manuscripts for numerous peer-reviewed journals, and serves on the editorial board of Human Rights and Human Welfare and The Journal of Latin American Studies. Neil Robinson BA (CNAA), MA, PhD (Essex) is Professor of Comparative Politics and Director of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge in Society (ISKS). Prior to his appointment at Limerick he taught at the universities of York and Essex. His research interests focus on Russian and post-communist politics, particularly the political economy of post-communism and post-communist state building. He is the author of Ideology and the collapse of the Soviet system. A critical history of Soviet ideological discourse,( Aldershot and Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar, 1995), and Russia: a state of uncertainty, (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), co-author (with Karen Henderson) of Post-communist politics, (London: Prentice Hall, 1997). He is the editor or co-editor of Institutions and political change in Russia, (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000), Reforging the weakest link: global political economy and post-Soviet change in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), (Aidan Hehir) State-building. Theory and practice, (London and New York: Routledge, 2007), and (with Todd Landman), The Sage handbook of comparative politics, (London: Sage, 2009), and The political economy of Russia, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012) . He is the author of several book chapters and journal articles in, among other places, Soviet Studies, European Journal of Political Research, Political Studies, The Journal of Communist Studies and Transitional Politics, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Demokratizatsiya, Review of International Political Economy.