This highly original collection of essays, written by some of the world's best-known political scientists elucidates state-of-the-art methodological approaches to comparative politics.
Giovanni Sartori and Mattei Dogan examine the applicability and validity of statistical techniques in the field. Seymour Martin Lipset considers the effectiveness of binary comparisons while John D. Martz addresses similar questions in regard of multi-state comparisons in Latin America. John Forrest offers an `asynchronic comparison' of weak contemporary African States and similar in Medieval Europe. Ali Kazancigil looks at Turkey's `high stateness' as deviant, and Mattei Dogan concludes the volume with a consideration of the applicability of Weber's typology of legitimacy.

Mattei Dogan is Scientific Director at the National Centre of Scientific Research, Paris, and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Ali Kazancigil is Director of the Division for the International Development of Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO, Paris, and Editor of International Social Science Journal.