The objectives of this course are to analyze the sources of stability or instability in political regimes, and to examine the conditions that promote either democracy or dictatorship. Our first task is to describe different regimes--what do we mean when we call one democratic and another authoritarian? We approach this first task by building a regime model. As we do so we seek to understand what makes political regimes stable or unstable by analyzing their effectiveness, popular legitimacy, and institutional adaptability. All regimes are challenged by change, but some remain stable in the face of change, while others are transformed. Why? And is it possible to argue that there is a ?best? type of regime? Are there universally valid criteria -- across time and space -- that we can use to compare regimes? Why do regimes succeed, fail, and change? As well as being central to the discipline of political science, these questions also play an important role in world politics and the formulation of US foreign policy. Since we are both students of political science and professionals who will serve as policy executors, the study of comparative politics offers significant rewards. After building the model we take it through various regions of the world, using the comparative method, analyzing the variables which change from regime to regime in liberal democracies, communist and post-communist states, newly industrializing and less developed countries, and the Islamic world.
