Summary of the notes for lectures 1-6 of the Comparative Politics Core module. Graphs and illustrations are included, as well as material from the lectures not included in the slides.
- comparative politics => looking for causes and patterns, which are believed to
exist. What explains the differences in the world?
- “scientific study of politics”
- “empirical political science”
- “subfield that aims to analyze multiple causes using the comparative method”
- you can question variation over time, differences at one moment in time, or
the validity of the data itself
- traditions of CP: study of single countries, methodology, and analytical focus (=why
questions)
- clouds to clock spectrum “applied” to politics
phase 1 of Comparative Politics: study of formal institutions
phase 2: Behavioral revolution (1920s-1960s)
- empirical focus, including non-Western cases; approach to politics as something
predictable with recognizable patterns (clock understanding)
- looking at alternative models of democracies; from institutions to ideologies and
belief systems; idea of convergence but also alternative forms of order
- new political actors, emphasis on systems
- new quantitative methods
phase 3: reaction to the Behavioral Revolution.
- “Bringing the state back in”: book that criticizes the approach, since institutions as
rules, procedures and social norms shape how individuals formulate preferences and
they should be taken into account.
- mid-range rather than universal theories
- shift from sociology to economics: focus on rational actors that can rank preferences
and act accordingly
- neither clock nor cloud: the world is not that predictable but there are still patterns
phase ¾: Second Scientific revolution (after 1989)
- epistemological shift: construction and testing of causal theoretical models
- emphasis on research design that makes it possible to test theoretical propositions
- How are theories built?
- focus on micro foundations
- importance given to ideas and identities
What do we do?
1. describe similarities/differences => classifications and typologies
2. explain similarities/differences => theories and hypotheses
3. (cautious) predictions => effect of institutions
,plural or Catholic approach to methodology
1. intensive research design: few cases, many variables (case-oriented research)
- comparative historical analysis
2. extensive research design: many cases, few variables (variable-oriented research)
- quantitative, large-N comparisons
3. mixed methods
data is observational or (quasi-)experimental
units of analysis
- national political systems
- sub-national political systems
- supra-national political systems
- types of political systems
- elements of political systems
- actors within political systems
Before measurements we need to conceptualize what we are talking about.
The range of actual research questions that are explored is much narrower than the potential
range of RQs. country coverage is very different and somehow biased (Western, democratic,
wealthy, population-dense)
Why is it a problem?
1. Justice and Equality
a. it’s a problem is knowledge about states and societies is unequal
b. who has the resources to conduct research? Who decides which questions
are important?
2. in tension with finding generalizable causal patterns
a. truncated sample if we base our analysis on where data exist or where we
can collect data
b. concepts and theories are colored by a limited range of countries
LECTURE 2 14/02/2023
, take away of last lecture:
- you have to specify and acknowledge scope conditions
- under which conditions does this relationship exist?
- when does this theory appy?
- formulate concepts that can “travel”
How do we know which contexts are homogenous enough for comparisons?
How do we avoid making invalid comparisons?
- conceptual: be mindful of the ‘ladder of abstraction’, and not to over-stretch a
concept
- empirical: we must have a certain knowledge of different political systems in order to
see whether the properties of the concept that is being taken into account can be
applied to a certain political system/country.
guiding questions:
- what is the state and why do comparativists care about it?
- how and why did modern states emerge?
- what is the function of the state
the four readings cover different time periods
- Weber: sociological and law background; 1910s
- Marshall: 1940s
- Tilly: 1980s
- Nistotskaya and D’Arcy: 2010s
a lot of interest in studying states was sparked in the 1970s onwards by the cold war, and
decolonization that has led to the creation of new states
post 9/11 there’s also a great concern about state security, and transnational insecurity. this
means that policy-makers want to focus on state-building
concept of state by Weber
- a human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of
physical force (debated translation with violence) within a given territory
- how did he develop this conceptualization?
- inductive thinking about the state by looking at the countries he knew best
- elements:
- human community
- about the population
- hard aspects: everyone within the territory of the state is subject to its
jurisdiction => the state is a compulsory organization
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