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)

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

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)

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?