Explaining why states differ — regime types, democratisation, electoral systems, and the state capacity underneath.
11 topics · 10 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
Electoral System Design: The New International IDEA Handbook
Andrew Reynolds, Ben Reilly & Andrew Ellis · 2005
The choice of electoral system is one of the most consequential decisions a democracy makes, and it works best as a deliberate trade-off among…
+3 more at this level
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World
World Bank · 1997
An effective state is not a minimal one but one whose capability is matched to the tasks it takes on, because states that overreach relative to their…
+3 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method
Arend Lijphart · 1971
Positions the comparative method as a substitute for experimentation when there are too few cases for statistics, and proposes concrete strategies —…
+1 more at this level
10 works
Andrew Reynolds, Ben Reilly & Andrew Ellis
The choice of electoral system is one of the most consequential decisions a democracy makes, and it works best as a deliberate trade-off among representation, accountability and stability rather than an inherited default.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Transparency International
Aggregates independent expert and business surveys into a single annual score per country, and argues that weakened justice systems, not just weak enforcement agencies, are what let corruption go unchecked.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Freedom House
Scores every country on political rights and civil liberties from primary indicators rather than reputation, and finds global freedom declining for the eighteenth consecutive year.
link checked 17 Sept 2026V-Dem Institute
Tracks democracy along five component indices built from expert-coded indicators rather than a single score, and documents a wave of autocratisation now reaching a majority of the world's population.
link checked 17 Sept 2026World Bank
An effective state is not a minimal one but one whose capability is matched to the tasks it takes on, because states that overreach relative to their institutional capacity fail even at their core functions.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Steven Levitsky & Lucan A. Way
Defines a hybrid regime type in which democratic institutions exist but are routinely abused by incumbents, arguing these regimes are a stable category of their own rather than democracies in transition or simple dictatorships.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Andrew J. Nathan
Argues China's one-party regime survives without democratising because it has institutionalised succession, meritocratic promotion and channels for interest articulation, challenging the assumption that authoritarian rule is inherently brittle.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Ian Shapiro (YaleCourses)
Argues that the post-Cold-War settlement produced weakened democracies and resurgent nationalism, and works through what changed in parties, courts and international institutions to cause it.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Arend Lijphart
Positions the comparative method as a substitute for experimentation when there are too few cases for statistics, and proposes concrete strategies — increasing the number of cases, reducing the property space — for using it rigorously.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Alfred Stepan
Argues the American federal template is not what most new democracies should follow, distinguishing 'coming-together' from 'holding-together' federations with very different implications for how much power the centre can be denied.
link checked 17 Sept 2026