Comparative Politics in Transition

Rating:
Summary: My Saving Grace
Review: As an "AP Comparative Government & Politics" high school teacher I highly recommend this text. I switched to this text after using Theen & Wilson's "Introduction to Comparative Politics".

The book is logically organized by themes like "economic worlds" and Islamic countries and former Communist countries. Each country is introduced with geography, maps, demographics, and history. Then, it introduces form of govt., leadership, participation, etc. The text is very readable for students. Each country section includes tables, maps, leader bios, and special focus boxes. The country section ends with terms, discussion and essay questions, and web sites. As well, at the end of country sections there is an overarching theme, like federalism, that is introduced and applied to the specific couuntry in world context.

I like this text as a primary text book for my intro high school students. My other text, Theen & Wilson, is most useful for students to go more in depth with explicit detail and jargon after they have read McCormick. I have found McCormick's book sufficient with supplementary readings from "The Economist" and internet research.

This book is a must. WARNING, however, the text goes NOT include France. France is a mandatory country of study in AP Comp. I simply supplement France through other sources and still use McCormick.