The comparative politics text is organized around a problem. How does one promote the development of political democracy? What are the factors that help explain the emergence of political democracy? Although some may object to the seemingly prescriptive nature of the question (the implication that democracy should exist everywhere) I adopt this focus for two reasons. First, it is a very practical question. Knowing the factors that affect the development of democracy can help students understand why "building" democracy in post war Iraq is so difficult, if not impossible. Thus the question is not prescriptive—rather it presumes that students need to ask this question first to realize that democracy may not be the best institutional arrangement given a set of historical, economic, social, cultural and international circumstances. Second, it provides an issue on which to "hang our theoretical hats"—it demonstrates that some very practical questions can be addressed using theories that...
