Includes index.

Contents: Unit 1:Pluralist democracies: countries studies: The United Kingdom -- Germany -- France -- Italy -- Japan -- Unit 2: Pluralist democracies: factors in the political process: Patterns of democratic atrophy? comparative perspective -- Political ideas, movements, parties -- Women and politics -- The institutional framework of representative government -- Unit 3: Europe - West, Center, and East: the politics of integration, transformation, and disintegration: The European Union -- A changing Europe -- Post-communist central and eastern Europe -- Russia and the other post-soviet republics -- Unit 4: Political diversity in the developing world: Politics of development -- Latin America -- Africa -- China -- The muslim world -- Unit 5: Comparative politics: some major trends, issues, and prospects: The democratic trend: how strong, thorough, and lasting? -- The turn toward markets: what role for the state? -- Ethnic and cultural diversity: the political assertion of group identities.