Summary
Summary Political Sciences 324
- Course
- Comparative Politics 324
- Institution
- Stellenbosch University (SUN)
Complete set of summaries based on lectures, class notes and summaries of the prescribed readings/articles.
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Political Scienceso 195 sovereign states: UN
Comparative methods: control different explanations
324: Comparative Two most common comparative designs:
1. Similar/most similar systems design
Politics o Very similar cases, but different dependent variable
(outcome)
o E.g. developing world context = similar
Party systems are different
Section 1: Comparative Politics 2. Most different Designs
as Discipline & Method o Very different cases but same dependent variable
(outcome)
o E.g. dominate party system occur across the world
Introduction: 15th March 2021 Develop or developing world context
Different electoral system
Comparative Politics:
Sub-discpline of Political Sciences Mahler:
o Method of study and subject of study
How & what Mahler, G.S. 1995. Comparative Politics: An institutional and
Our method = we compare cross-national approach. Prentice-Hall: New Jersey, pp. 6-
Similarities and differences 16.
“the systematic study of world’s political systems. It seeks to
explain differences between ad well as similarities among Core concepts from reading:
countries…comparative politics is particularly interested in Two general approaches:
exploring patterns and processes and regularities among o Most similar
political systems” - Wiarda 2000:7
o Most different
Difference within state, society, and countries
Always important to ask:
Social sciences = quasi-experimental approach
o Why are we undertaking the comparison that we
are undertaking?
o Comparison: strategy to deal with too few cases (n)
Three broad categories of subjects
and too many potential explanatory factors
, o Public policy o Two types of systems:
Focus on what governments do Analytic systems
o Political behaviour Concrete systems
Voting behaviour, political stability, political Can see the system itself
elites, leaders in politics, party behaviour o System = set of related objects
o Governmental structures
Governmental institutions
Legislatures, executives, courts,
constitutions, legal systems, bureaucracies,
political parties
Often use countries as units of study
o Nation-state useful because of what they represent
o Nation = group with shred characteristics (language,
history, culture)
o State = political entity based upon accepted
boundaries
Analytical problems to be aware of:
o Levels of analysis: types of observations and
measurements
Individual level
Aggregate/ ecological level (groups)
o Over-generalisation
o Ecological Fallacy: observation from broad level
applied incorrectly to individual level
o Individualistic Fallacy: individual-level observation
incorrectly generalised to aggregate level
Political Ethnocentrism: assuming that because political
institutions work in one way in stable Western democracies
they must work the same way in all political systems
Central concept in discussions of political analysis is that of
the political system
,The Historical Development of o Plato: the Republic (375 BC)
Comparative Politics o Aristotle: Politics
Both sought after the ideal political system
Two Epistemologies:
Ishiyama o Plato: normative
What should be
Comparative politics = a subfield of the discipline of political o Aristotle: empirical
sciences What it is
o Defined as the study of “comparative govt”
Compare ways in which different societies
cope with various problems & the role of
the political structures involved being of
main interest
Comparative politics: a method of study & a subject of study
Involves the systematic study of the world’s political
systems.
o It seeks to explain differences between as well as
similarities among countries
Exploring patterns and irregularities among
political systems
Focus on:
o Political institutions
o Political behaviour
o Political Ideas
Aims to understand and explain political phenomena:
o That take place within
state/society/country/political system
Lecture 3: 24th March
Ancient Greece:
, Degeneration: shift in govt from serving the interests of the Nicolo Machiavelli: analysis of power
public, to serving the interests of the private o Wanted to see unification of Italy and its return to
Aristotle claimed most stable political system = mix of its grandeur during Roman Empire
aristocracy and polity with a strong middle class o Analysed other countries where unification had
Aristotle’s method still seen today in modern political occurred
science: E.g. Spain: manipulated nobility & catholic
o Theory Hypotheses Analysis Empiricism church for purposes of unification
Comparative politics declined during the Middle Ages Montesquieu: best form of govt involves separation of
o Christian political theorists (e.g. Augustine, Aquinas) powers
believed Christian kingdom was ideal regime type o French philosopher
o Compared political systems
o Legislature, executive, judiciary
15th to 17th Century Jean-Jacques Rousseau: social harmony via govt through
general will
Comparative Politics made a come-back
o Social harmony disrupted by ownership of private
Era of Exploration
property
o Exploration of different world, kingdoms, structures,
Could be restored via public ownership/
govts
communal ownership
End of the 100 Years War
o Few elite knew of general will
o Religious War between Catholics and Protestants
o Forerunner of totalitarianism?
o Signing of Treaty of Westphalia
o Formalisation of state’s in Europe 19th to 20th Century
Development of political cultures
Karl Marx: critic of capitalism
o In comparative politics:
o Economic determinism
Clear difference in politics where there is a
Influence on political development is
protestant tradition or a catholic tradition
economics
Different values
o Looks at external explanations
One leads to more economic
o Influences on cultural and social are all about the
prosperity & greater democratic
economic
form of govt
o Economic determines political, social, cultural and
Other leads to more authoritarian
form of govt is externally driven
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