Politics is the art of the possible

Is democracy in retreat? Why is right-wing populism rising? Has a clash of civilizations arrived? What drives political transitions, and where does state capacity come from? How should we compare political systems—and what should the frame of reference be?

Liu Yu, a political scientist at Tsinghua University, leads a journey through the forest of comparative politics. Moving from a global panorama to focused cases, she supplies coordinates and a compass for understanding political difference.

Five fields of comparison

1. Globalization: peace, liberal hegemony, economic integration, and cultural backlash.
2. Democratic transition: decline and resilience in Russia, Egypt, South Africa, India, and Iraq.
3. State building: drug cartels, war, bureaucracy, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Afghanistan.
4. Political culture: democratic values, institutional change, mob behavior, and civilizations.
5. Political economy: Chile after Pinochet, Venezuela’s collapse, and a new age of inequality.

Present political realities are not inevitable. Among countless possibilities, ours is simply the one on which history happened to land. Comparison reveals alternatives—and helps distinguish democracy, state capacity, culture, and economic structure as explanations for political outcomes.