Comparative Politics. Theoretical and Methodological Challenges - Dietmar Braun;Martino Maggetti

'The challenges that comparative politics faces have, in most cases, been discussed as fragmented and separate treatments. Rarely are they presented systematically and in an encompassing manner, as in the present volume, which covers a variety of subdisciplines. The editors and contributors should be complimented for offering methodologists and empirical comparativists a structured and integrated volume in which the various challenges are not only discussed in depth, but also linked together, rather than in isolation.'
- Daniele Caramani, University of Zurich, Switzerland

What are the conceptual and methodological challenges facing comparative politics today? This informative book discusses four main challenges that create stress for disciplinary reproduction and advancement, while providing potential solutions.

In seven chapters, the contributors cover the most pressing issues: the dissolution of the nation-state as the main objective of inquiry; the increasing complexity of concepts and methods; the capacity to accumulate knowledge; and the tensions between parsimonious and contextually rich explanations.

Scholars and students of comparative politics, international relations and political science will be interested in the up-to-date overview of pertinent conceptual problems, as well as the possible ways forward. Practitioners and decision-makers will find the real-world examples provided in this book useful to their work.

Contributors: D. Braun, O.Giraud, D. Jahn, D. Kuebler, M. Maggetti, S. Stephan