Comparative Politics

Comparative Politics Section 1: Introduction 1.1 Introducing Comparative Politics What is Comparative Politics? What is Politics? Politics is the human activity of making public and authoritative decisions, 2 Public refers to the fact that these decisions affect the whole of society, not specific groups, 2 Authoritative refers to the fact that the government has the power to enforce them, 2 Politics is thus the competition of acquiring, maintaining, and exercising this power, 2 The Nature of Political Science In other languages, like German, there is no distinction between knowledge and science Of course there are differences between natural and social sciences, in particular because humans (the objects of Social Science) can answer back and change their behaviour in response to such studies What is Comparative Politics? Comparative politics is one of the three main subdisciplines of political science, the others being political theory and international relations, 3 Political theory deals with normative and theoretical questions, while comparative politics deals with empirical questions, 3 While international relations deals with interactions between political systems, comparative politics deals with interactions within political systems, 3 It seeks to understand power relations between individuals, groups, organizations, classes, and other institutions within a political system, 3 Of course, the distinction is not always so neat as this, and globalisation has led to increasing overlap between internal and external affairs, 3 Comparative politics seeks to get to the heart of the nature of politics and sovereignty, and has been tackled by such great thinkers as Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Montesquieu, 3 The History of Comparative Political Study Comparative political studies dates to the time of Aristotle, who identified several different types of political systems The modern discipline of comparative politics is a relatively recent development, dating only from the 1950s Partly this is explained by the post-war end of the isolationist policies of the USA The increasing use of quantification and statistical analysis during this period also promoted the development of comparative politics, as it was only in the 1950s that many nations brought out the statistics needed to do this The end of empires in the 1950s also led to an explosion of new states to be studied In the Cold War, the West was also competing with Communism (esp. USSR, later also China) for influence in developing world; needed knowledge of nations to do this effectively Why Study Comparative Politics? Examination of other countries informs us about problems and processes in our own country Allows us to avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ – learn from the experiences and mistakes of other countries so as to ensure you can adopt the best version of everything Allows us to have greater tolerance of cultural and political difference For example, after world war two many new democracies looked at the experience of the Weimar Republic to see what doesn’t work, what is needed for a stable constitution One lesson for example was that the Weimar republic had too many tiny parties in parliament, which squabbled with each other As such, many ex-communist east European states adopted lower limits on the size of parties that could have parliamentary representation The Substance of Comparative Politics What Does Comparative Politics Compare? Traditionally and predominantly, comparative politics compares political systems at a national level, 6 Other units that can also be compared are sub-national political units, supra-national units, empires, geographic regions, international organisations, or types of political systems, 6 Comparative politics also compares components of different political systems with each other, for example different parliaments, welfare policies, regional governments, etc, 6 Because the coverage of comparative politics is so broad, at different times in history it has tended to focus on different things, 6 Traditional Comparative Politics Before the second world war, comparative politics was mainly concerned with the analysis of the state and its institutions, 6 Mostly these institutions were state powers, administration and military bureaucracy, 6 Analysis focused on comparison of constitutional texts, legal documents and jurisprudence, 7 The Behavioural Revolution The 1930s to 1960s saw the introduction of behavouralist ideas from sociology and biology, which shifted the focus of comparative away from institutions, 7 This was also accompanied by increased attention towards the study of non-European nations, as opposed to the previous exclusive emphasis on major western European models, 7 This revolution was partly motivated by the rise of fascism, communism, and then decolonisation in the third world, all of which seemed to confirm that the world was not converging on western parliamentary government systems, as had been supposed, 7 In particular, there was more emphasis placed on the study of ideologies and mass communication, which seemed to be important to the success of fascism and communism, 7 Comparative political studies of smaller European states (in particular Scandinavia), and also India, South Africa and other states, also showed that, contrary to previous ideas, there were many different models of parliamentary government which were effective, not just the Westminster system of Great Britain, 7-8 These changes led to a change in methodology, which now emphasised the analysis of real behaviour rather than theoretical laws, large case studies of many nations, and the construction of the first large databases for use with statistical techniques, 8 In addition, labels and categories had to be changed and redefined so they were more appropriate for use in analysing non-western systems, 8 Back to Institutions The trouble with this new approach, however, was that the only way to compare such a broad range of cultures and societies was to engage in an excessive amount of abstraction, which reduced the usefulness of the results obtained from these models, 9-10 This counter-reaction to systemic functionalism began around 1967, and involved four key tenants, 10 The first was a return to the pre-eminent role of institutions, especially the state, but also more general sets of rules or social norms, 10 Second was a move away from excessive abstractionism by reincorporating varying historical, cultural, socio-economic and geographical circumstances, 10 This was possible because of a return to more narrow geographic analyses, and more modest attempts to derive partial rather than absolute global laws, 10 Third was a return to detailed case-study analysis, which was deemed crucial to the study of important but rare events, which cannot be studied statistically (e.g. revolutions), 10 Lastly was the increasing adoption in the late 1980s of rational choice models from economics, which seeks to study human institutions using the tools of economics by assuming that decisions are made by rational and self-interested individuals, 11 Schools of Comparative Politics The discipline of comparative politics contains three separate traditions, 4 The first tradition is oriented towards the study of individual countries; this harkens back to the traditional approach of comparative politics as referring to the study of foreign governments in isolation, 4 The second tradition is methodological, and is mostly concerned with establishing rules and standards by which different countries can be understood using rigorous logical, conceptual and statistical models, 4 The analytical approach is primarily concerned with the identification and explanation of differences and similarities between countries and their institutions, 4 It aims to provide explanations through careful analysis of data and case studies to test the validity of various explanatory models, 4 Methods of Comparative Politics Types of Research Methods The methods used in comparative politics depend on the type of analysis being conducted, 13 Analysis can be extensive (dealing with a large sample size but usually fewer variables or details), or intensive (the reverse, like case studies), 13 Research can also be cross-sectional (comparing regions and countries), cross-organizational (comparing ideologies or policies), or cross-temporal (comparing things across time), 14 Comparative research can focus on identifying and explaining similarities or weaknesses, 14 Hypothesis Testing Comparative begins by observing and describing similarities and differences that exist in the real world, especially by establishing classifications and typologies, 4 It then seeks to explain these similarities and differences. For example, why did social revolutions occur in France and Russia but not in Germany or Japan?, 4 To do this, comparative political scientists formulate hypotheses and use empirical data to test them, 5 Finally, comparative politics attempts to use this knowledge to make predictions, 5 Obviously, comparative politics is not an experimental science, 5 Instead, all that can be done is to look at different regions with different characteristics to try to infer correlation and hence causation between different variables, 5 Case Study Analysis The case study approach: study one example in depth to investigate the worth of a theory Specific or focused comparison between specific groups of countries Representative: pick an example that is typical of the category

Load more