Comparative politics focuses on comparisons within or between countries, regions, or systems. In this course, we will focus on the links between public opinion, democratic politics, elections and public policy.  Using both country-specific and cross-country analyses, we will discuss key themes, debates and concepts in the literature contrasting insights from empirical work in developed democracies with the emerging literature in developing democracies with particular attention to Latin American democracies. In the first part of the course, we will review the literature on opinion formation, considering the long and short-term influences that shape individual policy preferences. In the second part of the course, we will focus on aggregate public opinion and its response to policies.