Comparative Politics
The Mosaic of Comparative Politics: A Concise Introduction
Cognella Academic Press · Digital edition 2026 · Print edition forthcoming 2027
Written for undergraduate courses in comparative politics, its fourteen chapters each pair the analytical discussion with an embedded primary-source selection, so that students read Hobbes, Clausewitz, Weber and others alongside the cases they are studying. It is the assigned text for his Georgetown course on comparative political systems.
Comparative Public Policy
Lexington Books · 2014 · with Anne Marie Cammisa
Examines the American political experience in comparative perspective. “Highly recommended” by Choice, the publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries, in 2014.
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The book covers how path dependence shapes institutional development; the role of agenda setting and agenda control in policy formation and implementation; the various forms of democratic regimes; and the relationship between institutions, policy process and outcomes. It is designed for use in a variety of political science classes, including American politics, comparative politics and comparative public policy.
Westview · 1998 · with Anne Marie Cammisa
The earlier textbook that The Path of American Public Policy updates. See also the op-ed Cammisa and Dr. Manuel wrote on the subject, “Could America Use a Parliament?” (The Press-Enterprise, October 25, 2008).
Star Trek and Politics
Dr. Manuel’s two chapters in the Political Science Fiction series examine the role of the individual in the Star Trek saga, with a focus on the original series, which ran from 1966 to 1969, and ask under what conditions the personality of a particular leader might actually direct the course of history.
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Across its many televised series and its films, Star Trek story lines abound with the importance of the individual. From Captain James T. Kirk observing that “in every revolution there’s one man with a vision” to Captain Jean-Luc Picard noting “if we’re going to be damned, let’s be damned for what we really are,” and Captain Kathryn Janeway declaring “we will find a way out of here,” individuals, and especially leaders, matter in the Star Trek universe.
University of South Carolina Press · 2008 · ed. Donald M. Hassler and Clyde Wilcox
Includes Dr. Manuel’s chapter “‘But What of Lazarus?’ Taking Individuals Seriously in the Star Trek Saga.”
University of South Carolina Press · 1997 · ed. Donald M. Hassler and Clyde Wilcox
Includes Dr. Manuel’s chapter “‘In Every Revolution, There Is One Man with a Vision’: The Governments of the Future in Comparative Perspective.”
Cover image for The Mosaic of Comparative Politics: Emperor Justinian, mosaic, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, c. 547 (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).