Presenting the revised and updated theoretical chapters from the bestselling Comparative Politics Today, this text is a brief survey of the fundamental concepts students need to study government and politics. Beginning with a discussion of the purpose of government and of the methods for comparing political systems, the text then examines system, process, and policy as well as essential themes in comparative politics, like democratization, identity and community, and economic and social development. Through the seminal theoretical framework created by Gabriel Almond and G. Bingham Powell and refined by Kaare Strom and Russell Dalton, students will learn to make insightful comparisons no matter what countries they are studying.