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WHAT IS COMPARATIVE POLITICS ?

WHAT IS COMPARATIVE POLITICS ?. Why are we going to study politics, but also look at history, culture, geography and economics of countries? Dang, there’s a lot of details. Why don’t most Americans already know the basics about the world’s most important countries?

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WHAT IS COMPARATIVE POLITICS ?

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  1. WHAT IS COMPARATIVE POLITICS? • Why are we going to study politics,but also look at history, culture, geography and economics of countries? • Dang, there’s a lot of details. Why don’t most Americans already know the basics about the world’s most important countries? • Let’s see what we know to start off the course… In groups guess values for and rank Russia, the US, Iran, Mexico, India and the UK by: • Geographical size (just rank among 200 or so) • Population (in millions) • Per capita GDP at PPP (in US dollars) • Corruption (rank) • Life expectancy (age)

  2. WHAT IS COMPARATIVE POLITICS? • What is the difference between comparative politics and international relations? Should we have separate “fields” for most disciplines? • Why is comparing with other worth our time? It helps us to see larger patterns and isolate variables. (How many of you are worried about earnings? Why?: Data next slide) • Can you really learn very much can very much from studying 7 or so countries? Yes, inductive reasoning • Why don’t scholars agree on the appropriate way to study other societies? • Areas studies vs. the comparative method • Qualitative vs. quantitative methods • Rational choice vs. society specific

  3. WHY AND HOW DO WE COMPARATIVELY STUDY SOCIETIES? • Is there such a thing as a science of comparative politics? We are mostly about explaining and predicting • What do we miss when we are “scientific”? • Some key ideas about what makes some scientific: (1) categorization, (2) generalization (3) theory & hypothesis testing with empirical evidence and (4) replication? • What are “most-similar” comparisons? (e.g. looking at the advanced democracies or “presidential” systems). What are “most different” comparisons? (Iran vs. China)

  4. What are some of the key concepts for comparing countries? • What are states? How are they different from counties, nations, nation states, and “failed” states? • Where did states come from, and are there alternative ways of organizing power in a society? Sure… in the 16th C. only about 1/5 of us lived in them. • In what sense are states sovereign? Why are their a lot more sovereign and failed states than there used to be? • What are regimes? How are they different from governments? • What are political institutions? Do institutions have to be formal structures?

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