Historians of the American west, perhaps inspired by NAFTA and Internet communication, are expanding their intellectual horizons across borders north... and south. This collection of essays functions as a how-to guide to comparative frontier research in the American. Frontiers specialist Richard W. Slatta presents topics, techniques, and methods that will intrigue social-science professionals and western-history buffs alike as he explores the frontiers of North and South America from Spanish colonial days into the twentieth century.The always popular cowboy is joined by the fascinating gaucho, llanero, vaquero, and charro as Slatta compares their work techniques, roundups, songs, tack, lingo, equestrian culture, and vices. We visit saloons and pulperÍas as well as plains pampas, and Slatta expertly compares clothing, weather, terrain, diets, alcoholic beverages, card games ,and military tactics. From primary records we learn how Europeans, Native Americans, and African Americans become the ranch hands, cowmen, and buckaroos of the Americas, and why their dependence on the ranch cattle industry kept them bachelors and landless peons.

Reflecting recent developments in the field, this timely new edition gives an indispensable state-of-the art review of the whole field from the... world’s leading international scholars. With a completely new thematic introduction which explores how democracy is built and sustained, thoroughly updated chapters (many of which are also new) , the Third Edition provides a theoretical and comparative understanding of the major topics related to elections and introduces important work on key new areas.

Gregory and Stuart have revamped this definitive text to mirror major changes within the global economy of the 21st century. In addition to a new title,... the book now features more emphasis on transition, the acceleration of globalization, present trading agreements, and recent exchange rate regimes.

What do the visual and textual representations of the New World have to tell us about the complexity of the relationships between the major empires and... the individuals who opposed and favored colonial expansion? By consulting rare manuscripts, images, maps and books, Jonathan Hart explores the relatively neglected empires of Portugal and the Netherlands to draw new conclusions about those of Spain, France, and England (Britain, as well as its successor the United States). The book ranges from the Portuguese voyages to and round Africa through Columbus and his French and English successors to the Spanish-American War of 1898 and concentrates on the frictions and shifting rivalries among the empires. By focusing on cultural aspects of the sea-borne empires of Western Europe and their explorationand settlement of the New World, the book contributes to the important debate of colonial and postcolonial studies and makes a distinct contribution by arguing for the necessity of the study of history in this debate--that is seeing the colonial in the postcolonial..

Featuring an innovative organization and in-depth research, Comparing Media from Around the World discusses how media systems are similar and different... across the globe.  This book discusses the fundamental elements of media systems and shows how they are used in eight sample countries. Unlike other books, it is organized according to media elements, with comparative discussions of all eight countries within each chapter. This helps readers make connections and comparisons between the countries and allows them to apply the concepts to other countries not discussed in the book. Comparing Media from Around the World also features exciting photographs from the sample countries showing not only the media but how they are experienced in context (for example, a newspaper stand in France and an internet cafe in Ghana).

Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World offers a broad exploration of the conceptual foundations for comparative analysis of media and politics... globally. It takes as its point of departure the widely used framework of Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini's Comparing Media Systems, exploring how the concepts and methods of their analysis do and do not prove useful when applied beyond the original focus of their "most similar systems" design and the West European and North American cases it encompassed. It is intended both to use a wider range of cases to interrogate and clarify the conceptual framework of Comparing Media Systems and to propose new models, concepts, and approaches that will be useful for dealing with non-Western media systems and with processes of political transition. Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World covers, among other cases, Brazil, China, Israel, Lebanon, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Thailand.

Proposing a framework for comparative analysis of the relationship between the media and the political system, this book surveys media institutions in... eighteen West European and North American democracies. It identifies the principal dimensions of variation in media systems and the political variables which have shaped their evolution. It then pinpoints three major models of media systems development (the Polarized Pluralist, Democratic Corporatist and Liberal models) and explains why the media play a different role in politics in each of these systems.

Aimed at providing a comprehensive understanding of comparative political communication, this volume analyzes the media systems of Europe and America. ... It considers whether election campaigns around the world have become "Americanized," how international news journalists understand their jobs and produce different forms of television news programs, and how governmental media relations and news management efforts evolve in different political systems. The book analyzes transnational similarities and dissimilarities in the context of their potential effects on society and democracy.

There are now 193 sovereign states in the world. Contrary to many assumptions (or hopes), hardly any of these have developed into a liberal democratic... model; instead, there is still great variation in national political regimes. In this new edition, Alan Siaroff provides a comprehensive and current assessment of the world?s political systems. He does so primarily by outlining and contrasting the aspects of four different regime types?liberal democracies, electoral democracies, semi-liberal autocracies, and closed autocracies?and classifying all 193 countries within this typology. Empirical explanations answer the question of why countries tend to be in one regime type rather than another. This revised and expanded edition includes a new chapter summarizing the institutional variations in democracies along two dimensions: supermajority rule versus simple majority rule, and localism versus centralism. This chapter situates decentralized systems like the United States and "Westminster" democracies, like the United Kingdom, in a full comparative context. The new edition provides complete data updates, including one new sovereign state (Montenegro), and dozens of changes to national regime categories, levels of civil-military relations, and types of electoral systems; it also uses new variables such as the level of national internet usage.

The study of comparative public policy reveals the intensely political nature of policy choices. While policy analysts often look to policy successes... and failures outside their borders to draw valuable lessons and insights, cultural, economic, political, and institutional conditions vary from country to country and strongly affect how policy analysis is ultimately used. By combining a conceptual discussion of policy making with an examination of seven specific policy areas, Jessica Adolino and Charles Blake show how politics-in the realm of the environment, education, taxation, economics, immigration, health care, and social welfare-shapes policy choices. The second edition of Comparing Public Policies has been revised and updated to reflect the most recent political and policy developments. This new edition expands coverage of the internationalization of domestic policy making by including a European Union case study in each issue area, along with further discussion of the role of international interest groups in the policy process. The seven policy chapters have been revised and updated to examine current issues in the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the European Union, such as: - the heightened calls for immigration policy reform - the return to higher budget deficits in several countries - the efforts to lower tax rates in countries with falling expenditures and in countries with rising spending levels - the often unsuccessful attempts to control increasing health care costs in countries with aging populations - the spirited debate over the future role of the welfare state in an increasingly globalized economy - the, at times, divergent education reform debates regarding the role of assessment and calls for decentralization - the uneven environmental performance in the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions Chapters include analyses of crossnational trends-past and present-and a final chapter reexamines the internationalization of public policy in industrialized countries. Useful pedagogical features have been incorporated throughout the text, including "In Depth" boxes that offer detailed discussion of the political process or analytical techniques, and "Country At-a-Glance" boxes that provide quick reference to political institutions. A wealth of recent data is displayed in numerous tables and a glossary gives students a practical guide to terminology.

Explaining the nature of theories in the field of child development (including why theories are useful and why there are multiple theories), Thomas'... highly respected book covers the widest range of theories of any text currently available. Using the following criteria: "Has the theory been popular?," "Has the theory been influential?," and "Is the theory representative of a class or family of theories?," Thomas identifies the goals and describes the findings of more than two dozen theorists and inspects a series of child development issues that bridge a variety of theories. Additionally, Thomas suggests a variety of ways to compare theories and existing explanations of how a child develops.