Concise and clear in expression, Comparative Government covers contemporary systems of government, as well as relics of the past, in an excellent introduction to the profound study of comparative constitutional law. Dragoljub Popović has undertaken this task to display the subject in its current stage of development, concentrating on several focal points.
This book summarizes recent advances in the work on agenda-setting in a comparative perspective. The book first presents and explains the data-gathering effort undertaken within the Comparative Agendas Project over the past ten years. Individual country chapters then present the research undertaken within the many national projects. The third section illustrates the possibilities and directions for new research in comparative public policy using the data presented in this book. All the data used and discussed in the book is moreover publicly available. The book represents a significant contribution to the study of comparative public policy. By introducing a unified research infrastructure it opens up new possibilities for both empirical and theoretical research in this area.
Democracy is the most widely used way of organizing politics in the contemporary world. Comparative Democratic Politics brings together a team of renowned international scholars to provide a comprehensive review of theory and research in this essential area of comparative study. A key aim to the book is to introduce and understand representative democracy as a political process and contemporary system of governance in need of constant attention and scrutiny. Four important themes include: · the contribution of comparative politics as a distinct field within political science to our understanding of democracy, democratic politics and democratic theory · what we can learn from a comparative analysis of the role, functioning and behaviour of the principal actors (electorate, parties and institutions) across nations · the relationship between politics and public policy formation and processes of democratic decision-making and corresponding policy-making capacity · how we measure contemporary democracy or democratic performance in both a procedural and material sense. Comparative Democratic Politics will afford new and important insights to the contemporary study of representative democracy. It will be essential reading for all students and academics of political science and public policy seeking a deeper understanding of both the world′s so called established and emerging democracies.
This new addition to the Applied Social Research Methods series is unrivalled, it is written by leaders in the growing field of rigorous, comparative techniques.
These essays illuminate the processes of world history, modern civlizations and modes globalization from a comparative sociological point of view. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004129931).
Awareness of the need to deepen the method and methodology of legal research is only recent. The same is true for comparative law, by nature a more adventurous branch of legal research, which is often something researchers simply do, whenever they look at foreign legal systems to answer one or more of a range of questions about law, whether these questions are doctrinal, economic, sociological, etc. Given the diversity of comparative research projects, the precise contours of the methods employed, or the epistemological issues raised by them, are to a great extent a function of the nature of the research questions asked. As a result, the search for a unique, one-size-fits-all comparative law methodology is unlikely to be fruitful. That however does not make reflection on the method and culture of comparative law meaningless. Mark Van Hoecke has, throughout his career, been interested in many topics, but legal theory, comparative law and methodology of law stand out. Building upon his work, this book brings together a group of leading authors working at the crossroads of these themes: the method and culture of comparative law. With contributions by: Maurice Adams, John Bell, Joxerramon Bengoetxea, Roger Brownsword, Seán Patrick Donlan, Rob van Gestel and Hans Micklitz, Patrick Glenn, Jaap Hage, Dirk Heirbaut, Jaakko Husa, Souichirou Kozuka and Luke Nottage, Martin Löhnig, Susan Millns, Toon Moonen, Francois Ost, Heikki Pihlajamäki, Geoffrey Samuel, Mathias Siems, Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde, Catherine Valcke and Matthew Grellette, Alain Wijffels.
This cutting-edge book facilitates debate amongst scholars in law, humanities and social sciences, where comparative methodology is far less well anchored in most areas compared to other research methods. It posits that these are disciplines in which comparative research is not simply a bonus, but is of the essence.
Comparing constitutions allows us to consider the similarities and differences in forms of government as well as the normative philosophies behind constitutional choices. The objective behind this Companion is to present the reader with a succinct yet wide-ranging companion to a modern comparative constitutional law course.
During the second half of the twentieth century, African states shifted away from state-led development strategies, and are now moving towards a strategy of regional economic integration. In this book, Landry Signé explores the key drivers of African policy and economic transformation, proposing a preeminent explanation of policy innovations in Africa through the examination of postcolonial strategies for economic development. Scholars and practitioners in fields as varied as development studies, political science and public policy, economics, sociology and African studies will benefit from Signé's unprecedented comparative analysis, including detailed cases from the often understudied Francophone Africa. First studying why, how and when institutional or policy change occurs in Africa, Signé explores the role of international, regional and national actors in making African economic development strategies from 1960 to date, highlighting the economic transformations of the twenty-first century.
