Extensively revised and updated, this classic text revisits the central problem of searching for mainstream and alternative paradigms to guide us in comparative political inquiry. Chilcote reminds us that in a post-Cold War world in which challenges to comparative inquiry abound - ethnic conflict, authoritarian repression, state building and disintegration, new industrialization and postindustrialization, security systems redefined - the search for new paradigms that Theories of Comparative Politics represents gains in importance daily.