Politics is a comprehensive and comparative introduction to the essential components of democratic politics. It familiarizes students with enduring themes and issues that have arisen over the roughly 2,000-year history of political research and provides foundations for more advanced study in the discipline. The empirical focus is on the institutions and processes associated with presidential and parliamentary variants of liberal democracy.

Following an introduction to some of the central concepts in political analysis and the evolution of political research over the centuries, Politics focuses on political ideas (political philosophy, ideologies, and political culture), institutions (constitutions, legislatures, and executives; their relationships in parliamentary and presidential systems; electoral and party systems; the bureaucracy; and the judiciary), and the international setting. One of the book's central themes is the relationship of contemporary political debates to more enduring traditions of political thought. Philosophical traditions are linked to the emergence and institutional functioning of liberal democracy, and, by virtue of the comparative approach, appreciation of the immense variety of democratic political arrangements in different countries of the world is offered.

This text is accompanied by an instructor's manual on CD-ROM that includes a quantitative assignment and a test bank.