What explains the rapid growth of state power in early modern Europe? While most scholars have pointed to the impact of military or capitalist revolutions, Philip S. Gorski argues instead for the importance of a disciplinary revolution unleashed by the Reformation. By refining and diffusing a variety of disciplinary techniques and strategies, such as communal surveillance, control through incarceration, and bureaucratic office-holding, Calvin and his followers created an infrastructure of religious governance and social control that served as a model for the rest of Europe—and the world.
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Body and Soul: Calvinism, Discipline, and State Power in Early Modern Europe
2. Disciplinary Revolution from below in the Low Countries
3. Disciplinary Revolution from above in Brandenburg-Prussia
4. Social Disciplining in Comparative Perspective
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

本书是对政治学领域进行研究设计的基本问题的方法论介绍，内容浅显易懂，是一本使用的操作指南，适合政治学、社会学、人类学、经济学和历史学专业的研究生和本科生及其导师使用。全书分为六章，分别论述研究设计与相关知识的构建；研究问题的提出如何影响研究结果；研究对象和案例的选择如何影响研究结果；研究论据的采用如何影响研究结果；研究方法和技术的选择如何影响研究结果；以及最后的总结。

Review
"This comprehensive work...provides a thorough and contemporary examination of the field of comparative politics and various central questions within it...there is more than enough material here (including detailed references) to keep scholars and bring graduate students completely up to date; indeed the analyses are often cutting edge. Lastly, inasmuch as this handbook series aspires to shape the discipline and not just describe it, many chapters in this handbook usefully conclude with a precise outline of the future research agenda as seen by the author."--Politics Studies Review
"Two visionary editors--who see clearly where research in comparative politics is heading--and a star-studded cast of authors who are acknowledged masters of their fields make this Oxford Handbook an accurate compass for those who wish to be brought to the frontiers of comparative research."--David D. Laitin, James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor of Political Science at Stanford University
Product Description
The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics offers a critical survey of the field of empirical political science through the collection of a set of chapters written by 48 top scholars in the discipline of comparative politics. Part I includes chapters surveying the key research methodologies employed in comparative politics (the comparative method; the use of history; the practice and status of case-study research; the contributions of field research) and assessing the possibility of constructing a science of comparative politics. Parts II to IV examine the foundations of political order: the origins of states and the extent to which they relate to war and to economic development; the sources of compliance or political obligation among citizens; democratic transitions, the role of civic culture; authoritarianism; revolutions; civil wars and contentious politics. Parts V and VI explore the mobilization, representation and coordination of political demands. Part V considers why parties emerge, the forms they take and the ways in which voters choose parties. It then includes chapters on collective action, social movements and political participation. Part VI opens up with essays on the mechanisms through which political demands are aggregated and coordinated. This sets the agenda to the systematic exploration of the workings and effects of particular institutions: electoral systems, federalism, legislative-executive relationships, the judiciary and bureaucracy. Finally, Part VII is organized around the burgeoning literature on macropolitical economy of the last two decades.

本书致力于通过多种研究方法如不同国家及地区的政治状况、历史角度等构建较为系统的比较政治学理论，共包括八部分内容：第一部分导论；第二部分理论与方法，主要从历史角度及案例分析角度进行研究；第三部分国家与国家形成的认同，主要讲国家的形成、国家的合法性、公民对国家的认同以及民族冲突；第四部分政治制度与转变，主要研究了民主的形成以及与公民文化的关系；第五部分政治不稳定性与政治冲突，主要研究全球化背景下的公民示威运动；第六部分群众运动的转移，主要研究政党与选举制度；第七部分政治要求的处理，主要研究分权、联邦主义理论；第八部分比较视角中的政府治理，主要进行不同制度国家间的比较；索引。

Review
"An intellectual tour of the discipline of comparative politics with some of its most creative pioneers and contemporary practitioners. The carefully organized interviews offer surprising perspectives about our eclectic and evolving field, and remind us of why we became scholars of comparative politics in the first place." -- Edward Gibson, Northwestern University
"This fascinating history of comparative politics offers a panoramic view of major debates and of trends in theoretical and methodological approaches over the second half of the 20th century. It brings the field to life by letting scholars who shaped it sketch their own intellectual biographies. Reading it is a truly enriching and enjoyable experience for any comparativist." -- Evelyne Huber, University of North Carolina
"This book fills a huge void in the profession of political science. Through a series of fifteen carefully prepared and referenced, wide-ranging, and often captivating interviews with many of the most influential scholars of comparative politics, we gain a priceless perspective on the growth of the discipline and the craft of research and theory building. In their intelligent and probing interviews (and very valuable introductory chapters), Munck and Snyder go a long way toward correcting our crippling deficit in professional memory, while revealing the life histories, moral convictions, intellectual passions, and divergent theoretical and methodological approaches that have shaped and advanced comparative politics in the last half-century. This book should be read by everyone who is preparing for, or thinking about, a career in political science, no matter the field." -- Larry Diamond, coeditor, Journal of Democracy
"Reading autobiographical reflections of notable scholars is a pleasurable way of learning about a field of study. These interviews cover a good slice of modern comparative government. They are wide ranging, focused, and informative. And fun to read." -- Nelson W. Polsby, University of California, Berkeley
"To show how great works that have shaped our understanding of politics and society are rooted in individual lives is a wonderful project. Munck and Snyder are the best of guides. Thoroughly informed about the scholarship, they explore the personal side with deftness, tact, and imagination. The result is a series of lively and revealing intellectual portraits." -- Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Watson Institute for International Studies
"A fascinating oral history of comparative politics in the United States. You could read the collected books and articles of all the fifteen leading lights represented here and never grasp the insights that these interviews offer: how wars, immigration, and the economy shaped the research agenda; how the backgrounds, personalities, and life experiences of these scholars guided their work; and how these scholars evaluate one another and those beyond this elite circle. Munck and Snyder have performed an invaluable service to the discipline." -- Michael Coppedge, University of Notre Dame
"This distinctive book frequently illuminates the dynamics of major scholars' research agendas (and of their career paths more generally), thus making it highly recommended reading for researchers in this subfield." -- Choice
"I told my qualitative research class to read at least three of the interviews in the book and summarize what they took from each. The response was amazing. Most of them had read most of the book. They were moved, inspired, and reassured by it. Each of them felt validated by something one of these scholars said. We ended up discussing the interviews through much of the class... the discussion of how real scholars relate their world and their scholarship was so exciting to them that I didn't want to stop it. So thanks... for helping them to bridge the often daunting distance between themselves and the names on the texts they read in class -- it was truly rewarding." -- Margaret Keck, Johns Hopkins University
Product Description
In the first collection of interviews with the most prominent scholars in comparative politics since World War II, Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder trace key developments in the field during the twentieth century.
Organized around a broad set of themes -- intellectual formation and training; major works and ideas; the craft and tools of research; colleagues, collaborators, and students; and the past and future of comparative politics -- these in-depth interviews offer unique and candid reflections that bring the research process to life and shed light on the human dimension of scholarship.
Giving voice to scholars who practice their craft in different ways yet share a passion for knowledge about global politics, Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics offers a wealth of insights into contemporary debates about the state of knowledge in comparative politics and the future of the field.

Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Periods of increased equality are usually born of carnage and disaster and are generally short-lived, disappearing with the return of peace and stability. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world.
Ever since humans began to farm, herd livestock, and pass on their assets to future generations, economic inequality has been a defining feature of civilization. Over thousands of years, only violent events have significantly lessened inequality. The "Four Horsemen" of leveling—mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich. Scheidel identifies and examines these processes, from the crises of the earliest civilizations to the cataclysmic world wars and communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Today, the violence that reduced inequality in the past seems to have diminished, and that is a good thing. But it casts serious doubt on the prospects for a more equal future.
An essential contribution to the debate about inequality, The Great Leveler provides important new insights about why inequality is so persistent—and why it is unlikely to decline anytime soon.

本书距产增订已经五年。在平常状态之下，此次改版，必不限于局部的增订。但举世各国近来已全部入于战争状态，其政治制度，变动甚速，大都不易论其利弊得失。而因参考书籍及其他资料，搜集维艰，即叙述亦以正确。本书卷帙颇巨，在此印刷极端困难之际，能获续印，已属幸事；全部改排，殆不可能。因之，此次改版，仅就原书第六编第三节以下予以增修；俾读者对于五年以来，我国战时政制时的变迁及其现状获一明白的概念。增订范围，虽然有限，凡所增益，或为一般治宪法学的人所需求的资料。其他各编及附录，均暂仍前版之旧，未予更易。

研究政治发展的重要著作，特别是提出“政治稳定=政治制度/政治参与”的著名公式。研究Huntington，此书必读，断不可只跟潮流去看《文明冲突论》而不看此书。