Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Pt. 1. Introduction -- Ch. 1. The State of the Discipline, the Discipline of the State / Robert E. Goodin -- Pt. 2. Political theory -- Ch. 2. Overview of Political Theory / John S. Dryzek, Bonnie Honig and Anne Phillips -- Ch. 3. Normative Methodology / Russell Hardin -- Ch. 4. Theory in History: Problems with Context and Narrative / J.G.A. Pocock -- Ch. 5. Justice After Rawls / Richard J. Arneson -- Ch. 6. Modernity and its Critics / Jane Bennett -- Pt. 3. Political institutions -- Ch. 7. Old Institutionalisms: An Overview / R.A.W. Rhodes -- Ch. 8. Elaborating the "New Institutionalism" / James G. March and Johan P. Olsen -- Ch. 9. Comparative Constitutions / Josep M. Colomer -- Ch. 9. Comparative Constitutions / Josep M. Colomer -- Ch. 10. Political Parties In and Out of Legislatures / John H. Aldrich -- Ch. 11. The Regulatory State? / John Braithwaite -- Pt. 4. Law & politics -- Ch. 12. Overview of Law and Politics: The Study of Law and Politics / Keith E. Whittington, R. Daniel Kelemen and Gregory A. Caldeira. Ch. 13. The Judicialization of Politics / Ran Hirschl -- Ch. 14. Judicial Behavior / Jeffrey A. Segal -- Ch. 15. Law and Society / Lynn Mather -- Ch. 16. Feminist Theory and the Law / Judith A. Baer -- Pt. 5. Political behavior -- Ch. 17. Overview of Political Behavior: Political Behavior and Citizen Politics / Russell J. Dalton and Hans-Dieter Klingemann -- Ch. 18. Political Psychology and Choice / Diana C. Mutz -- Ch. 19. Votes and Parties / Anne Wren and Kenneth M. McElwain -- Ch. 20. Comparative Legislative Behavior / Eric M. Uslaner and Thomas Zittel -- Ch. 21. Political Intolerance in the Context of Democratic Theory / James L. Gibson -- Pt. 6. Contextual political analysis -- Ch. 22. Overview of Contextual Political Analysis: It Depends / Charles Tilly and Robert E. Goodin -- Ch. 23. Political Ontology / Colin Hay -- Ch. 24. The Logic of Appropriateness / James G. March and Johan P. Olsen -- Ch. 25. Why and How Place Matters / Göran Therborn -- Ch. 26. Why and How History Matters / Charles Tilly -- Pt. 7. Comparative politics -- Ch. 27. Overview of Comparative Politics / Carles Boix and Susan C. Stokes. Ch. 28. War, Trade and State Formation / Hendrik Spruyt -- Ch. 29. What Causes Democratization? / Barbara Geddes -- Ch. 30. Party Systems / Herbert Kitschelt -- Ch. 31. Political Clientelism / Susan C. Stokes -- Ch. 32. Overview of International Relations: Between Utopia and Reality / Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal -- Ch. 33. The New Liberalism / Andrew Moravscik -- Ch. 34. The English School / Tim Dunne -- Ch. 35 From International Relations to Global Society / Michael Barnett and Kathryn Sikkink -- Ch. 36. Big Questions in the Study of World Politics / Robert O. Keohane -- Ch. 37. Six Wishes for a More Relevant Discipline of International Relations / Steve Smith -- Pt. 9. Political economy -- Ch. 38. Overview of Political Economy: The Reach of Political Economy / Barry R. Weingast and Donald A. Wittman -- Ch. 39. Economic Methods in Positive Political Theory / David Austen-Smith -- Ch. 40. Capitalism and Democracy / Torben Iversen -- Ch. 41. Politics, Delegation and Bureaucracy / John D. Huber and Charles R. Shipan -- Ch. 42. The Evolutionary Basis of Collective Action / Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis -- Pt. 10. Public policy -- Ch. 43. Overview of Public Policy: The Public and Its Policies / Robert E. Goodin, Michael Moran and Martin Rein -- Ch. 43. Overview of Public Policy: The Public and Its Policies / Robert E. Goodin, Michael Moran and Martin Rein -- Ch. 44. Social and Cultural Factors: Constraining and Enabling / Davis B. Bobrow -- Ch. 45. Policy Dynamics / Eugene Bardach -- Ch. 46. Reframing Problematic Policies / Martin Rein -- Ch. 47. Reflections on Policy Analysis: Putting it Together Again / Rudolf Klein and Theodore R. Marmor -- Pt. 11. Political methodology -- Ch. 48. Overview of Political Methodology: Post-behavioral Movements and Trends / Henry E. Brady, David Collier and Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier -- Ch. 49. Causation and Explanation in Social Science / Henry E. Brady -- Ch. 50. Field Experiments and Natural Experiments / Alan S. Gerber and Donald P. Green -- Ch. 51. The Case Study: What It Is and What It Does / John Gerring -- Ch. 52. Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods / David D. Laitin and James D. Fearon.

Drawing on the rich resources of the ten-volume series of The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science, this one-volume distillation provides a comprehensive overview of all the main branches of contemporary political science: political theory; political institutions; political behavior; comparative politics; international relations; political economy; law and politics; public policy; contextual political analysis; and political methodology. Sixty-seven of the top political scientists worldwide survey recent developments in those fields and provide penetrating introductions to exciting new fields of study. Following in the footsteps of the New Handbook of Political Science edited by Robert Goodin and Hans-Dieter Klingemann a decade before, this Oxford Handbook will become an indispensable guide to the scope and methods of political science as a whole. It will serve as the reference book of record for political scientists and for those following their work.