This book is about states and the challenges to sovereignty they face in the contemporary world. We address this issue by systematically comparing states around the globe. As such, this book represents a contribution to comparative politics, which is a core subfield within the academic discipline of political science. The other subfields include international relations, political theory, and American politics. The object of study of comparative politics is to understand similarities and differences in the domestic, or internal, politics of states. Specifically, the goal is to explain why countries are sometimes similar and sometimes different in their domestic political processes and outcomes. A typical political process question is why some governments are popularly elected by their nation's citizenry and why others come to power through violent upheaval, such as revolution. A typical political-outcomes question is why some states provide more generous welfare provision for their citizens than others do. Thus, a “comparativist” is one who observes similarities and differences in the domestic politics of states, develops theoretical explanations for them, and then seeks to test these explanations against new cases.

The state is central to the study of domestic politics because it defines the territorial framework and institutional landscape within which these politics unfold. India, Switzerland, and South Africa, for example, all have political parties to organize and aggregate the various and competing political interests in society. But exactly how these parties function, how they represent their supporters, how they raise and spend money, how they gain power, and even how many parties exist are all strongly shaped by the values, ideas, myths, and practices embedded in the state, as well as by the institutional rules of governance set forth in the state's founding documents (such as the constitution). In other words, there is a “statist” context to politics, and by that we mean that states are among the primary causal elements that shape, frame, and condition the how, what, when, and why of domestic politics. Of course, states are not static entities immune from, and impervious to, the impact and pressure of external forces.