This 06/07, twenty-fourth edition of ANNUAL EDITIONS: COMPARATIVE POLITICS provides convenient, inexpensive access to current articles selected from the best of the public press. Organizational features include: an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites; an annotated table of contents; a topic guide; a general introduction; brief overviews for each section; a topical index; and an instructor's resource guide with testing materials. USING ANNUAL EDITIONS IN THE CLASSROOM is offered as a practical guide for instructors. ANNUAL EDITIONS titles are supported by our student website, www.dushkin.com/online.

UNIT 1. Pluralist Democracies: Country Studies

Part A. The United Kingdom

1. A Constitutional Revolution in Britain?, Donley T. Studlar, McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2006

Labour came to power in 1997 promising to modernize British government. Here an American political scientist examines the record of institutional reforms until the end of 2005, along with their origin, implementation, and potential impact. He covers such topics as the reform of the House of Lords, the regional and local devolution of power, the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into British law, a British Freedom of Information Act, and electoral reforms.

2. Weighing the Votes: Why the Electoral System Favours Labour, The Economist, May 14, 2005

The rules used in British general elections appear to be beautifully simple. In fact, as this brief points out, they are not neutral but work like a complicated and unfair board game. Their cumulative effect is to give considerable advantages to Labour—and all this without partisan design such as a strategy of gerrymandering.

3. The British General Election of 2005, Donley T. Studlar, AP Comparative Government and Politics, 2005

Labour won its third consecutive parliamentary election in May 2005. It was a muted victory, as the author shows. Labour won a sharply reduced parliamentary majority, but it received only 35 percent of the popular vote cast, down from 43 percent four years earlier. The voter turnout was 61 percent, a slight improvement on 2001 but still the second lowest since the expansion of the franchise in 1918.

4. The Strange Tale of Tony Blair, The Economist, May 7, 2005

This article reviews Tony Blair’s impressive record as party reformer and government modernizer. It points to Iraq as an obvious reason for his massive loss of public trust but finds a deeper explanation in Blair’s governing style—his enthusiastic “oversell” of his political initiatives, his tendency to micro-manage, and his perceived resort to expediency.

Part B. France

5. A Divided Self: A Survey of France, John Andrews, The Economist, November 16, 2002

The sweeping victory of the Conservatives in the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2002 seems to have made the right-of-center bloc, led by President Chirac, dominant in French politics for the next few years. There is no guarantee that there will be effective reforms to deal with the series of social and political problems discussed in this article, ranging from the failure to integrate the many immigrants to the social and economic problems confronting its welfare state.

6. Next French Revolution: A Less Colorblind Society, Peter Ford, The Christian Science Monitor, November 14, 2005

Young people of North African descent played a key role in the suburban riots that rocked France in the second half of 2005. These events drew attention to flaws in the celebrated French policy of full assimilation of immigrants. By ignoring ethnic and cultural differences, this policy has served to obscure some major inequalities and the urgent need for constructive public policy responses.

7. French Inch Toward Social Reform, Peter Ford, The Christian Science Monitor, October 27, 2005

In Western Europe there are at least four distinctive models of the social benefit state, and each of them is now undergoing varying kinds and degrees of reform. This article focuses on the continental model, found in France and Germany, and emphasizes the difficulties facing French reformers.

Part C. Germany

8. A System in Crisis, a Country Adrift, The Economist, September 24, 2005

Germany’s Bundestag election in 2005 came a year early and was intended to resolve a growing stalemate in national politics. Instead, it produced a new version of parliamentary deadlock by failing to produce a clear majority for either a center-left or a center-right coalition. This article examines the election outcome and its political implications.

9. Angela Merkel: Politician Who Can Show a Flash of Steel, Mark Landler, The New York Times, October 11, 2005

Angela Merkel represents a considerable shift in German politics. She is the first woman, the first East German, the first natural scientist, and at 51 the youngest person to head the government of the Federal Republic. Anticipating her remarkable advancement, this article examines Merkel’s political background and leadership style with an emphasis on her tenacity and analytical intelligence.

10. Only Marginal Reforms Are Expected in Germany, Richard Bernstein and Mark Landler, The New York Times, October 12, 2005

Chancellor Merkel will be confined in her policy movement. The two parties forming German’s “grand coalition” can be counted on to keep her reforms marginal. The German tradition of corporatism will also set limits on what can be done.

11. Immigration Law Hailed as a Vital Turning Point in Germany’s Attitude to a Multiracial Society, Hugh Williamson, Financial Times, July 9, 2004

Germany’s new immigration law, a compromise passed in 2004, is the result of three years of “often bitter negotiations” both with the conservative opposition and members of the red-green coalition then still in power. It is here presented as a legislative milestone in the German attempt to come to terms with the fact that the country is multiethnic and, given the present demographic trends, will need immigrants in the future.

Part D. Japan

12. Japanese Spirit, Western Things, The Economist, July 10, 2003

Japan has emerged as one of the world’s great economic success stories, 150 years after Commodore Perry’s order to open the country to trade. This survey examines the origins of that success and emphasizes that Japan has shown that modernization does not require embracing Western culture.

13. Koizumi’s Party, Backing Reforms, Wins by Landslide, Norimitsu Onishi, The New York Times, September 12, 2005

As prime minister since 2001, Junichiro Koizumi has seen many reform initiatives diverted, sometimes by opponents in his own unruly Liberal Democratic Party. In 2005, he used an early election and called on a privatization issue to rejuvenate the LDP with political supporters, many of them women. Together with some institutional reforms, the LDP’s landslide victory will strengthen the party leadership and the prime minister.

UNIT 2. Pluralist Democracies: Factors in the Political Process

Part A. Patterns of Democratic Change; Some Comparative Perspectives

14. Public Opinion: Is There a Crisis?, The Economist, July 17, 1999

Advanced democracies differ considerably from each other, but in recent years they have shared a common pattern of public disillusionment with institutions and politicians. The first in a series of three briefs dealing with this development examines the general decline in public trust and voter turnout in well-established democracies.

15. Political Parties: Empty Vessels?, The Economist, July 24, 1999

This brief from The Economist series examines the partial weakening of political parties in modern democracies.

16. Interest Groups: Ex Uno, Plures, The Economist, August 21, 1999

This brief in The Economist series reports on the growth of special-interest lobbying in modern democracies.

17. Advanced Democracies and the New Politics, Russell J. Dalton, Susan E. Scarrow, and Bruce E. Cain, Journal of Democracy, January 2004

In the advanced democracies, there has been a decline of confidence in representative government accompanied by a shift toward a mixed repertoire of political expression that includes a greater role for both “direct democracy” and forms of “advocacy democracy.” This creates new problems that will require new solutions.

Part B. Women in Politics

18. Women in National Parliaments, Inter-Parliamentary Union, January 31, 2006

This table has been compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. It classifies 181 countries in descending order by the percentage of women elected to the lower or single legislative chamber. The most striking change in recent years has been the move by Rwanda to the top of the list. This is the result of elections held in 2003, in the aftermath of the genocide that often left women—now nearly two-thirds of the population—to take charge of rebuilding the country.

19. The True Clash of Civilizations, Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, Foreign Policy, March/April 2003

There is a cultural divide between the West and the Muslim world, but it derives from a fundamental difference about gender equality and not, as Samuel Huntington would have it, over the value of democracy.

20. Europe Crawls Ahead. …, Megan Rowling, In These Times, July 22, 2002

Women have moved to high elective office earlier and at higher rates in some countries than in others. This article examines what factors have made a difference. France’s new parity law was widely flouted in 2002, but in the German elections of the same year, self-imposed quotas by several parties played a key role.

Part C. The Institutional Framework

21. What Political Institutions Does Large-Scale Democracy Require?, Robert A. Dahl, Political Science Quarterly, vol. 120, no. 2, 2005

Here Robert Dahl summarizes some of his most important findings about the core institutions of a representative democracy.

22. What Democracy Is. … and Is Not, Philippe C. Schmitter and Terry Lynn Karl, Journal of Democracy, Summer 1991

The two authors point out that modern representative democracies vary in their institutions, practices, and values—depending on their socioeconomic, historical, and cultural settings.

23. Judicial Review: The Gavel and the Robe, The Economist, August 7, 1999

Democracies have handed increasing amounts of power to unelected judges. This article examines the growth and many different forms of judicial review.

24. Referendums: The People’s Voice, The Economist, August 14, 1999

The referendum, a form of direct democracy, takes many forms. This article examines the different kinds of referendums, looks at the experience so far, and reexamines the arguments about letting voters decide policy questions directly.

Part D. American Politics in Comparative Perspective

25. The Great Divide, Timothy Garton Ash, Prospect, March 2003

Influenced by their own weakness and the trauma of contemporary wars, Europeans have come to pursue international peace, negotiation, and cooperation at almost any price, whereas Americans have retained a greater willingness to use force. Kagan sums up the contrast in a memorable overstatement, “On major strategic and international questions today, Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus.” Ash explains why he finds Kagan’s analysis to be only half right.

26. Living With a Superpower, The Economist, January 2, 2003

A study in world values by Ronald Inglehart and associates shows a fairly persistent pattern of basic similarities and differences within countries. On an axis that plots “quality of life,” Americans and West Europeans show high commitments to "self-expression" values. They differ on "secular-rational" and non-religious values. Here Europeans (except the Irish) turn out to be markedly more secular-rational and less patriotic and religious than Americans.

27. The Case for a Multi-Party U.S. Parliament? American Politics in Comparative Perspective, Christopher S. Allen, McGraw-Hill/CLS, 2006

The author supports the inclusion of American political institutions in the study of comparative politics. He presents a brief on behalf of a multi-party parliamentary system for the United States. As he points out, it can be read as a mental experiment in institutional transplantation. It underscores the basic insight that institutions are not neutral but have consequences for the political process itself.

UNIT 3. Europe in Transition: West, Center, and East

Part A. The European Union

28. Now That We Are All Bundled Inside, Let’s Shut the Door, The Economist, April 30, 2005

This report on the EU’s admission of ten new member nations in 2004 carries the ironic title, “Now that we are all bundled inside, let’s shut the door.” In fact, the recent and most challenging Union enlargement has gone remarkably well, although the welcoming mood has dissipated. Romania and Bulgaria are still on course to join by 2008, but Turkey’s full entry remains in doubt.

29. A Too Perfect Union? Why Europe Said “No”, Andrew Moravcsik, Current History, November 2005

The defeat of the EU constitution in French and Dutch referendums had little to do with the substance of the document and does not mean that the European Union is now in decline or disarray, according to this American observer. The EU continues to be a successful multilevel system of governance, but it should not aspire to imitate or replace the nation states with their symbolic and democratic legitimacy.

30. After the Votes: Europe’s Leaders Confront the Consequences of “The Wrong Answer”, George Parker, Financial Times, June 3, 2005

This author draws less optimistic conclusions about the EU’s future in the wake of the constitution’s defeat in the French and Dutch referendums. He examines several possible reasons for the “waning of the European ideal” and concludes that there is a paucity of leaders ready and able to mobilize support for further economic and political integration.

Part B. Russia

31. Putin Gambles on Raw Power, Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times, September 19, 2004

After modern Russia’s worst terrorist act—the seizure of the school that ended with more than 300 dead hostages—President Putin ordered an overhaul of the political system that would strip Russians of their right to elect their governors and district representatives in Parliament. The authoritarian response seemed like a non sequitur, but it reflects a long-standing distrust of democracy and preference for the iron fist in times of emergency.

32. What Does Putin Want?, Peter Lavelle, Current History, October 2004

The author believes that Vladimir Putin follows a long-term reform agenda that includes authoritarian forms of “managed democracy” and “managed capitalism.” Despite its remarkable economic recovery, fueled by the high prices for oil exports, Russia faces some serious structural problems. In his efforts to increase the state’s ability to govern effectively, Putin is seeking to break the power and drain the wealth of the super-rich “oligarchs.”

UNIT 4. Political Diversity in the Developing World

Part A. Latin America

33. Fox’s Mexico: Democracy Paralyzed, Denise Dresser, Current History, February 2005

A few years after a democratic election that ended many decades of one-party domination, today’s Mexico is marked by political disenchantment. As President Fox comes closer to the end of his term, he is seen as increasingly irrelevant. Hard fought succession battles preoccupy the three major parties, but the issues of structural reform appear to have been postponed.

34. Latin America Looks Leftward Again, Juan Forero, The New York Times, December 18, 2005

Writing shortly before the electoral victories of Evo Morales in Bolivia and Michelle Bachelet in Chile, the author examines the leftward turn in Latin American politics. It is explained in terms of a disillusionment with the Washington Consensus, a free-market approach that in the 1980s had replaced nationalistic nostrums like import-substitution and protectionism.

Part B. Africa

35. Return to Lundazi, The Economist, December 24, 2005

Returning to a corner of Zambia after an absence of forty years, John Grimond remembers the high hopes with which he came to Africa as an 18-year old to teach French and physics. He finds evidence of 40 years of needless poverty and misgovernment. When he lived there, the region had roughly the same income per capita as South Korea, but now Korea’s is 32 times greater. If only he had been able to teach Korean studies, he muses.

36. Nigeria: Chronicle of a Dying State, Ike Okonta, Current History, May 2005

Nigeria is the most populous and most diverse country in Africa. It is potentially also one of the richest. Nevertheless, as this article shows, Nigeria is also a prime example of a failed state, based on a violent and predatory relationship of rules to the population that goes back to colonial times but now encounters increasing resistance.

Part C. China

37. China: The Quiet Revolution, Doug Guthrie, Harvard International Review, Summer 2003

The reformers who led China toward a market economy avoided “shock therapy.” Instead, they moved gradually in implementing changes that in the end turned out to be a major institutional transformation. This article explores their strategy and the reasons for the success of their “quiet revolution.”

38. China’s Leader, Ex-Rival at Side, Solidifies Power, Joseph Kahn, The New York Times, September 25, 2005

At a time when the ruling Communist Party faces enormous stresses in China, including social unrest and an epidemic-like corruption, party leader Hu Jintao has solidified his grip on power. The article gives a political portrait of Hu and his deputy Zeng Qinghong and discusses the major problem facing them.

Part D. India

39. Sonia: And Yet So Far, The Economist, May 22, 2004

This article explains the dramatic outcome and the broader political context of India’s milestone 2004 parliamentary election. To general surprise, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was defeated, and a minority coalition headed by the reinvigorated Congress party took office. When Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of a former prime minister, decided not to head the new government, the post went to Manmohan Singh.

40. India’s Democracy Provides Lessons, Rajan Menon, Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2004

Despite its numerous problems, India is a model for political survival as a multiethnic democracy. Its political institutions provide safety valves for expressing grievances and finding decentralized responses. The paradox is that India’s enormous diversity and its cumbersome political system have enabled unity and democracy to combine. There are indications that a moderate prosperity may follow as India continues the incremental deregulation of its economy, begun in 1991.

Part E. The Muslim World

41. Middle East Democracy, Marina Ottaway and Thomas Carothers, Foreign Policy, November–December 2004

It is a mistake to regard the Middle East as the last holdout against a global democratic trend. There are many non-democracies in other parts of East and Southeast Asia. Nor is the Middle East necessarily immune to the promises of the “third wave of democratization.” But the democratic breakthrough must be homegrown.

42. Plenty of Seeds, But Still a Long Way to Fruition, Xan Smiley, The Economist, 2006

The prospects for democratic openings appear to have improved in several of the less violent Arab countries. Of the Arab League’s 22 member states, three “benevolent monarchies” appear to be leading candidates for a limited form of political pluralism: Morocco, Jordan, and Bahrain.

43. Bin Laden, the Arab “Street,” and the Middle East’s Democracy Deficit, Dale F. Eickelman, Current History, January 2002

Osama bin Laden speaks in the vivid language of popular Islamic preachers, and he builds on a deep and broad resentment against the West. He benefits from the lack of democratic outlets in much of the Middle East that leaves no established platforms to express opinions on matters of public concern.

UNIT 5. Comparative Politics: Some Major Trends, Issues, and Prospects

Part A. The Democratic Trend: How Strong, Thorough, and Lasting?

44. Democracy’s Sobering State, Thomas Carothers, Current History, December 2004

The “third wave” of democratization, first identified and labeled by Samuel Huntington, has come to a standstill. It referred to the numerous democratic openings that began in southern Europe in the mid-1970s and then spread to much of the rest of the world. This article examines the cluster of factors that are blunting the further advance and consolidation of a democratic government. Individually and together, they present a major challenge that cannot be removed by empty rhetoric.

Part B. The Ambivalence About Markets: What Role for the State?

45. Capitalism and Democracy, Gabriel A. Almond, PS: Political Science and Politics, September 1991

Toward the end of the Gorbachev era, Gabriel Almond presented to a Soviet audience some key ideas about the ambiguous relationship between capitalism and democracy. Drawing in part on the work of other theorists, this leading political scientist explored ways in which capitalism both supports and subverts democracy as well as ways in which democracy may both subvert and foster capitalism.

Part C. The Politics of Group Identity: How Much Does It Matter?

46. Cultural Explanations: The Man in the Baghdad Café, The Economist, November 9, 1996

This essay critically reviews recent scholarly attempts to explain economics and politics in terms of cultural differences.

47. Globalization Is About Blending, Not Homogenizing, Joseph S. Nye Jr., The Washington Post National Weekly Edition, October 14–20, 2002

The author emphasizes that globalization does not necessarily mean homogenization or Americanization. He uses examples from Japan to Canada to illustrate his argument.

48. An Explosive Combination, Amy Chua, Orlando Sentinel, September 21, 2003

Free-market economics and overnight democracy can become a volatile mixture when members of a market-dominant ethnic minority become seen as outside exploiters. Amy Chua explains and illustrates how this combination has fueled ethnic conflict in some developing countries and how it could recur in postwar Iraq.

49. Jihad vs. McWorld, Benjamin R. Barber, The Atlantic Monthly, March 1992

Benjamin Barber examines two major tendencies that are shaping much of the political world today. One is a form of tribalism, which pits cultural, ethnic, religious, and national groups against each other. It clashes with a tendency toward globalism brought about by modern technology, communications, and commerce. Both tendencies can threaten democracy.