Kegley Jr., Charles W. World Politics: Trend and Transformation.

USA: Cengage Learning,

2009

SUMMARY

This book provides the tools necessary for understanding world affairs in our present
period of history, for anticipating probable developments, and for thinking critically about the
potential long-term impact of those developments on countries and individuals across the globe.
This book aims to put both changes and continuities into perspective. It provides a picture of the
evolving relations among all transnational actors, the historical developments that affect those
actors’ relationships, and the salient contemporary global trends that those interactions produce.
This book resists the temptation to oversimplify world politics with a superficial treatment that
would mask complexities and distort realities. Moreover, the text refuses to substitute mere
subjective opinion for information based on evidence and purposefully presents clashing and
contending views so that students have a chance to critically evaluate the opposed positions and
construct their own judgments about key issues.

COMMENTS

This book will help us students foster critical thinking for the global future and its
potential impact in our own lives. World politics is different from national politics. World
politics requires wider investigation as it affects all country. There is a need for accurate and up-
to-date information, intellectual analysis, and interpretation. In a globe undergoing constant and
rapid change, it is imperative to accurately describe, explain, and predict the key events and
issues unfolding in international affairs. These intellectual tasks must be performed well so that
world citizens and policy makers can harness this knowledge and ground their decisions on the
most pragmatic approaches to global problems available.
Hauss, Charles. Comparative Politics: Responses to Global Challenges, Sixth Edition. USA:
Cengage Learning, 2009

SUMMARY

This book uses a unique theme, that is domestic responses to global challenges, to
introduce key concepts and examine the growing interdependence among strong and weak states
through the discussion of 11 countries and the European Union. This book establishes a
comparative structure based on five themes explored for each country in boxed features that are
color-coded for easy cross-referencing and comparison. The themes are conflict,
democratization, economic liberalization, globalization and challenges. The countries discussed
are categorized by economic development, helping you hone your skills of comparison,
synthesis, and interpretation by studying countries of similar economic status. The core of the
book covers the politic in the three kinds of states mentioned earlier; industrialized democracies,
current and former Communist regimes, and the third world

COMMENTS

With this kind of text, we can gain an understanding of important political trends and
concepts, an exposure to politics in a number of countries, and a desire to dig more deeply into
the fascinating field of comparative politics. For me, this book will be helpful to us especially
now that our country, Philippines, is being considered by other nations as belonging to the Third
World.
Kesselman, Mark, Krieger, Joel, Joseph, William A. Introduction to Comparative Politics:
Political Challenges and Changing Agendas, Fifth Edition. USA: Cengage Learning,
2007

SUMMARY

This book employs a country-by country approach built around four core themes that
strikes a balance between the richness of each country’s distinctive pattern of political
development and cross-country comparative analysis. This book emphasizes patterns of state
formation, political economy, domestic political institutions and processes, and the politics of
collective identities, all within a context shaped by globalization. This book takes special note of
the social policies and their outcomes in each country, in particular their implications for the
household and the role of women in society. It also assess significant changes in the maintenance
of internal security since 9/11, and the tradeoffs between security and civil liberties or human
rights. It also addresses the concerns about climate change and environmental politics and the
electoral behavior, and political protests.

COMMENTS

This book is helpful to countries that are experiencing big problems especially in their
politics. Politics throughout the world seems more troubled today than even a few years ago,
when celebrations around the globe ushered in the new millennium. The world of politics was as
turbulent as at any time in recent memory, with clear cut trends more elusive than ever.