Summary Political Sciences 324

Political Sciences
o 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