Comparative Politics Reading List

COMPARATIVE POLITICS READING LIST

Department of Political Science, Yale University
February 2015
Methodology
Achen, Chris. (2005). Lets Put Garbage Can Regressions and Garbage Can Probits
Where They Belong. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 22(4), 327-339.
Bennett, Andrew & Checkel, Jeffrey T. (2014). Process Tracing: From Metaphor to
Analytic Tool. Cambridge University Press. Introduction.
Brady, Henry & Collier, David, eds. (2000). Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse
Tools, Shared Standards. Berkeley, CA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Elster, John. (2007). Explaining Social Behavior. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
King, Gary, Keohane, Robert, & Verba, Sidney. (1994). Designing Social Inquiry:
Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Geddes, Barbara. (1990). How the Cases you Choose Affect the Answers you Get:
Selection Bias in Comparative Politics, Political Analysis, 2, 131-50.
Collier, David. 2011. Understanding Process Tracing. PS: Political Science and
Politics 44, 4: 823-30.
Przeworski, Adam. (2007). Is the Science of Comparative Politics Possible? In Boix,
Carles & Stokes, Susan C. (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Cleavage Formation, Order and Disorder
Bowles, Samuel & Gintis, Herbert. (2006). Social Preferences, Homo Economicus
and Zoon Politikon. In Goodin, Robert E. & Tilly, Charles eds., The Oxford
Handbook of Contextual Analysis, (pp. 172-186), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Horowitz, Donald. (1985). Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press.
Huntington, Samuel P. (1968). Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven:
Yale University Press.
Posner, Daniel. (2004). The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas
and Tumbakas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi, American Political
Science Review, 98, 529-46.
Wood, Elisabeth. (2003). Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kalyvas, Stathis. (2006). The Logic of Violence in Civil Wars. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Kuran, Timur. (1991, October). Now Out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the
East European Revolution of 1989, World Politics, 44, 7-48.
Scott, James. (1977) The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence
in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press
Scott, James. (1987) Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance.
New Haven: Yale University Press.
Chandra, Kanchan. (2006). What is Ethnicity and Does it Matter? Annual Review
of Political Science No, 9: 397-424.
Habyarimana, James, Macartan Humphreys, Daniel Posner and Jeremy Weinstein
(2007). Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision. American
Political Science Review 101 (4): 709-725.
Nationalism
Anderson, Benedict. (1983). Imagined Communities. London: Verso.
Beissinger, Mark. (2002). Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet
State. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Brubaker, Rogers. (2001). The return of assimilation? Changing perspectives on

immigration and its sequels in France, Germany, and the United States. Ethnic and
racial studies 24 (4): 531-548.
Gellner, Ernest. (1983). Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Miguel, Edward. (2004). Tribe or Nation? Nation Building and Public Goods in
Kenya versus Tanzania, World Politics, 56.
Skocpol, Theda, (1979). States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of
France, Russia, and China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wilkinson, Steven. (2004). Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic
Riots in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
State Building
Herbst, Jeffrey. (2000). States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority
and Control. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Olson, Mancur. (1982). The Rise and Decline of Nations. New Haven: Yale
University Press. 2 3
Tilly, Charles. (1992). Coercion, Capital and European States. Oxford: Blackwell
Press.
Levi, Margaret. (1988). Of Rule and Revenue. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.
Migdal, Joel. (1987) Strong Societies, Weak States. In Weiner, Myron & Huntington,
Samuel, Understanding Political Development. Illinois: Scott Foresman/Little Brown.
Scott, James. (1998). Seeing like a State. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Boone, Catherine. (2003). Political Topographies of the African State. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Political Regimes
Acemoglu, Daron & Robinson, James. (2006). Economic Origins of Dictatorship and
Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Boix, Carles. (2003). Democracy and Redistribution. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Dahl, Robert A. (1971). Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
Lijphart, Arend. (1977). Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration.
New Haven: Yale University Press.
Luebbert, Gregory M. (1987). Social Foundations of Political Order in Interwar
Europe, World Politics, 39(4), 449-478.
Moore, Barrington, Jr. (1966). Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord
and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Cambridge: Beacon Press.
North, Douglass & Weingast, Barry. (1989). Constitutions and Commitment:
Evolution of the Institutions Governing Public Choice in 17th Century England.
Journal of Economic History, 49, 803-832.
Przeworski, Adam, Alvarez, Michael, Cheibub, Jose, & Limongi, Fernando. (2000).
Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well Being in the World,
1950-1990. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wedeen, Lisa. (1999). Ambiguities of Domination. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Gandhi, Jennifer & Lust-Okar, Ellen. (2009). Elections under Authoritarianism.
Annual Review of Political Science, 12, 403-422.
Svolik, Milan. 2012. The Politics of Authoritarian Rule. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Political Institutions

Bates, Robert. (1981). Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of
Agricultural Policies. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Linz, Juan, & Valenzuela, Arturo, eds. (1994). The Failure of Presidential
Democracy: Comparative Perspectives. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
North, Douglas. (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic
Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Powell, G. Bingham, Jr. (2001). Elections as Instruments of Democracy: Majoritarian
and Proportional Visions. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Putnam, Robert with Leonardi, Robert & Nanetti, Raffaella. (1993). Making
Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
Tsai, Lily. (2007). Solidarity Groups, Informal Accountability and Local Public
Goods Provision in Rural China. American Political Science Review 101 (2): 355372.
Political Parties, Participation, and Mobilization
Aldrich, John Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Party Politics in
America, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1995), part 1.
Ernesto Calvo and Maria Murillo, Who Delivers? Partisan Clients in the Argentine
Electoral Market, American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 48, No. 4, (October
2004), pp. 742-757.
Cox, Gary. (1997). Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the Worlds
Electoral Systems. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Chibber, Pradeep and Kollman, Ken (1998). Party Aggregation and the Number of
Parties in India and the United States. American Political Science Review 9 (2): 329342.
Downs. Anthony 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. Harper Collins, pp. 314, 21-35, and 114-141.
Garrett, Geoffrey. (1998). Partisan Politics in the Global Economy. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Kitschelt, Herbert. (1992). The Formation of Party Systems in East Central Europe.
Politics and Society, 20, 7-50.
Grzymala-Busse, Anna. (2007) Rebuilding Leviathan: Party Competition and State
Exploitation in Post-Communist Democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Lipset, Seymour Martin and Stein Rokkan. 1967. Cleavage Structures, Party
Systems, and Voter Alignments: An Introduction, in Lipset and Rokkan eds., Party
Systems and Voter Alignments, pp. 1-56
Martin Shefter. (1981). Parties and Patronage: England, Germany, and Italy.
Politics and Society, 7, 403-451.
Shugart, Matthew & Carey, John. (1992). Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional
Design and Electoral Dynamics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Stokes, Susan, Thad Dunning, Marcelo Nazareno, and Valeria Brusco. (2013).
Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism: The Puzzle of Distributive Politics. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Tsebelis, George. (1995). Decision Making in Political Systems: Veto Players in
Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, Multicameralism and Multipartyism. British
Journal of Political Science, 25, 289-325.
Magaloni, Beatriz. (2006). Voting for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and its
Demise in Mexico. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.