Introduction to comparative politics: political system performance in three worlds

First, there are aspects of comparative politics with which this
book does not deal but which other introductory texts spend much space
outlining. Twenty-five years ago most comparative texts went into great
detail about institutional, constitutional, and other configurational differ-
ences among the political systems considered most important (very often
those of the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union). While
some texts still use this traditional approach, it began to come under criti-
cism in the 1950s for focusing too much on the formal institutions of govern-
ment and too little on the deviations from constitutional provisions, the roles
of semipublic and private groupings (parties, unions, citizen coalitions, busi-
ness and professional associations), and in general the variety of informal
ways in which governments are run or influenced. A good introduction to
foreign governments (a more appropriate title for the institutional approach)
would quickly have to amend its description of structural differences among
the governments covered to note that the real stuff of politics does not
necessarily follow prescribed lines.