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Why are the countries of the world governed so differently? How did this diversity of political orders come about? Will liberal capitalism retain its appeal and spread further around the globe in the 21st century, or will new and hostile challengers come on the scene? These are the questions that guide this new introductory text to comparative politics. Cast through the lens of ten theoretically informed and historically grounded country studies, it illustrates and explains how the three major concepts of comparative political analysis - interests, identities, and institutions - shape the politics of nations. A novel feature of this textbook is its explicit discussion of the international challenges to each country's chosen path of development. These challenges frequently alter domestic interests and identities, and force countries to find new institutional solutions to the problems of modern politics. Written in a style free of heavy handed jargon and organized in a way that speaks to contemporary comparativists' concerns, this textbook provides students with the conceptual tools and historical background they need to understand the politics of today's complex world.