This book explains how a political systems works. Democratic and non-democratic political systems are analysed deeply in their structures, processes, forms and institutions, and afterwards are compared in order to check the main diferences between them. A fantastic book!

First of all, being as this is a book of a historically academic nature, I want to note that I am not an academic of history. While being a student of computer science, I bought this book to read for information for a paper I was writing.

The topic was the upper class society of New York during the time period of The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I, not a great lover of history, found the book wonderfully written to not only provide me with the facts and statistics that I knew I would find in a book written with a research theme in mind, but also to entertain me with clear, logical writing that could be understood on any level.

Just to sum up the content, the book explains the historical background of the political and social scene prior to the 19th century and then launches into a detailed and analyzed text on not only the upper class and how it played a role in the political structure of a newly forming New York City, but also an in-depth dissection on the social trends and habits of the upper class outside the political scene.

While the topic may be quite specific and this book is truly only recommended to those unique history buffs of 19th century New York City or a student writing on a relevant topic, for anyone needing information on upper class New York or the old political scene, I highly recommend the book.

Although this book has wonderful facts and figures, and should be used as a reference material, it is awfull for reading. The only way you will finish reading this book is if you have to for school or you are very motivated. It is slow and does not keep your attention.

This book stands apart from the other comparative pol. books because of its lengthy introductory unit (almost 150 pages in 7 chapters). Some of it is very deep analytical material which is appropriate for very advanced students, but most high school readers will die of confusion if boredom doesn't finish them off first.

For the country chapters, they are very thorough, and each is 40-50 chapters, quite a lot of material. It's pretty dense, too. One good thing is that the book includes the usual "big" ones (G.B., France, Russia, China) as well as Germany and Mexico, but also India, Nigeria, Brazil, and Egypt, giving much material for the often overlooked less-developed countries.

Received the book right away and book was in good condition.