Comparative Politics: Domestic Responses to Global Challenges
The most difficult aspect of teaching comparative politics is finding a way to briefly describe quite a few countries in a limited time-frame, but in a way that students remember the information. Hauss' book does a nice job of keeping the chapters a reasonable length, written in easy-to-understand language, and gives a nice variety of countries to choose from.... I like the organization of the chapters in Hauss. I also like that it has a chapter leading into each new section, so there is a chapter on industrialized countries, current and former communist countries, etc. It provides a sort of capstone chapter before we get into individual countries, so we can discuss larger patterns.... It is the best of the books I reviewed."One of the great problems with texts in the field of comparative government is that they are BORING! For my money, the Hauss text is the most readable work available in the field today. The author's writing style is appropriate for students taking their first course in comparative government and commands their interest."[The book's] greatest strengths are: 1. Its narrative is lively, written in an appropriate style for first time comparative government students. 2. The material contained in this work is accurate. 3. The material contained in this work is current and uses contemporary examples 4. The work is organized in a similar fashion to my course and contains all of the countries I examine in the course."COMPARATIVE POLITICS is a very broad field in terms of concepts, theories, expertise of countries and regions and field development. It is difficult to decide on a book especially at the introductory level to be simple and easy while covering most of the themes. Most will expect a very thick book and lengthy discussions. I found this book includes many simple and easy discussions of difficult topics that will be well received by students and instructors.