Comparative inquiry in politics and political economy: theories and issues

Abstract

* Preface * Issues * Terminology * Theoretical Directions * L. The Politics of Comparative Inquiry * The American Legacy * Dissent in Academia * Prevalent Beliefs and Values * Ideology and Politics * Ideology Revisited * Politics and Science * Scholarship and the Establishment * 2. Theoretical Paths * Positivist Thought and Its Role in Shaping the Mainstream * Historicist Thought in the Search for an Alternative Paradigm * Competing Paradigms * Marxist and Non-Marxist Political Economy * Origins and Evolution of Political Economy * 3. Institutional Frameworks: State and System * Systems Theories * State Theories * 4. The Social Dimension: Class and Group * Theoretical Foundations * Perspectives on Group * Perspectives on Class * Issues of Class and Group Analysis * 5. The Cultural Dimension: Individual and Collective Preferences * Mainstream Political Culture and Socialization * Alternative Perspectives on Culture * Prospects for Culture Theory * 6. The Economic Dimension: Capitalist and Socialist Development * Conceptualizing Development * The Historical Evolution of Capitalist and Socialist Development * Theoretical Directions * Policy Approaches Toward Development * Whither Imperialism and Development Theory? * 7. The Political Dimension: Representative and Participatory Democracy * Representative Democracy * Participatory Democracy * Issues of Democracy in Capitalism and Socialism * Models of Empowerment and Transformation * 8. The Unending Search for a Paradigm * Glossary * References * Index