COMPARATIVE METHODS & APPROACHES Fundamental to all human thought

AAbsolute Monarchy (1600s-1700s) CConstitutional Monarchy (Saudi Arabia) PParliamentary Democracy (UK, Japan, Canada) PPresidential Democracy (US, Mexico, Brazil) DDictatorship (Cuba, Vietnam, N. Korea) TTheocracy (Iran, Vatican)

AAllocate resources EEnhance security PProtect the environment PProvide public service (education, transportation, cultural amenities) BBuild community and nation PPromote economic efficiency and growth PProtect Human rights

► Common identity and sense of community among citizens important ► Without a unifying factor cleavage can dominate Japan: example of a population that is ethnically homogeneous with shared language, little religious diversity and strong political history; in addition, enjoys relative geographic isolation from neighbors Nigeria: extremely large and diverse population; no common pre-colonial history; sharp religious divisions; 250 ethnic groups; language diversity

► Negative Rights/Political & Civil Rights  Freedom from interference; an entitlement to be left alone (e.g., freedom of expression, privacy rights);  Focus on individual liberty and freedom ► Positive Rights/Welfare Rights  Freedom to do or attain something; an entitlement or claim that somebody else do something for you (e.g., the right to an education, the right to medical care)

 Understand our own political system  Permits us to see a wider range of political alternatives  Permits us to illuminate the virtues and shortcomings of our own political life and to expand our awareness of the possibilities of politics  Enhance our ability to understand others  Helps to interpret development of other countries  Helps to describe and understand political processes and political change by offering concepts and reference points from a broader perspective  Stimulate us to form general theories of political relationships  Improve out classifications of politics (constitutions, electoral systems, executives)  Achieve generalizations that have potential prediction  Enable us to test our political theories  Helps to form our political theories by confronting them with the experience of many institutions and settings

► A World of States  States as the primary actors on the world stages  International organizations play a crucial role  External factors shape politics and policies of states ► Governing the Economy ► The Democratic Idea  Strong appeal of the democratic idea  Diverse sources of support for democracy  Democracies vary widely in states  Potential fragility of democratic transitions ► The Politics of Collective Identity  Importance of ethnicity, religions, race, & locality

 Comparing institutions  Institutional roles matter more than the people who occupy them  The value of institutions as long-term commitments that are more reliable than any single employee  Institutions define interests  Comparing societies (1960s-1970s)  Reasons for the rise of analysis on societies (decolonization, the rise of communist countries, new developments in social science techniques as political behavior and attitude surveys  Society-centered analyses formed part of the behavioral revolution in politics (contrast with institutional analysis)  Comparing states (after 1980s)  The state as an active agent, shaping and re-shaping societies  Where society-centered analysis saw the state as embedded in society, the state-centered approach saw the state as part ofa configuration defined by the state itself.

 The Modernization Theory  A universal theory of social, political, and economic development, based on the experience of “modern” systems.  Claims that as societies develop, they would become capitalist democracies, sharing a similar set of values  The Behavioralism  Explains the behavior of actors, not describe institutions  A shift from descriptive study of politics to one that stresses explanation & prediction.  Places greater emphasis on the political behavior of individuals as opposed to larger political structures and on quantitative over qualitative methodology.

 The Dependency Theory  A new approach developed by the critics of the modernization theory  Claims that development wasn’t linear, and that third world was poor because of international capitalism (not because it was “pre-modern”).  Postbehavioralism  Rejection of a grand theory of politics  Criticism of modernization theory as biased and inaccurate  Diversity of methods and political approaches, emphasizing such issues as gender, culture, environment, and globalization.

► Correlation  Relationship between two or more variables  Correlation is different to causation because it doesn’t necessarily mean that one variable causes changes in another variable. ► Causation  Changes in one variable (the independent variable) cause changes in another variable (the dependent variable).  Dependent variable as a factor or a phenomenon that is to be explained.  Independent variable as a factor that is thought to affect the dependent variable.

 Focus on empirical data (statistics) across a large number of cases  Variables are numbers  Enable to access a large number of cases/countries  Conclusions are more generalizable  Limited to variables expressed in quantitative data and across countries.

 Focus on a more detailed study of one (or few) case(s).  Concentrates on the unique aspects of a country such as history and culture.  Allows for more detailed conclusions and for the analysis of more sophisticated research questions.

KKnowledge TThe simplest and the best reason. HHelps to interpret development of other countries & understand our own system CClassification FFormulate & test hypotheses GGeneralizations & predictions AA theory allows to explain singular cases.

►C►Conceptual stretching AA common or abstract concept for comparison (the connotation of “national pride” differs among countries ►I►Interdependence ►T►Too many variables too few cases LLack of sufficient cases to test hypothesis VVariables vary over countries ►S►Selection bias UUnrepresentative results, generalizations cover only a small number of cases/countries