Why Compare?

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Why Compare?
(4 min) Think of a question involving U.S.
politics that needs to be examined in a
comparative perspective. Why is this? Can you
think of a political problem whose understanding
would not require comparisons?
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• No comparison is possible without a problem

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Comparative politics is Problem Driven

• What motivates the best comparative politics
  research are puzzles of real-world significance
  Under what conditions do democracies emerge and
  stabilize? Why do revolutions occur? What is the
  role of different types of regimes in
  facilitating prosperity and equity? This problem
  orientation distinguishes comparative politics
  from other social science fields. Atul Kohli

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(Political?) realityReal Problems
Theories/Paradigms
Research Problems
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In the U.S.

• In 1999, there were 648 prisoners per 100,000.
• In 1997, the Gini Index (index of inequality) was
  40.8 (the lowest 10 got 1.8 of wealth, and the
  highest 10 got 30.5).
• The U.S. ranks as a Free Country

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Thus...

• Are 40.8 Gini and 648 prisoners per 100,000
  people LOW or HIGH?
• Are these indicators related?
• Do they affect
• Democracy?
• Political participation?
• (What is freedom? Can we really measure it?)
• Are they affected by these factors?
• How can we decide about this?

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1. Prisons

• In the U.S. (Cross-time)

Year people in prison
1975 380,000
1985 740,000
1995 1,600,000
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1.Prisons (Cross-country)
Country Year people in prison Prisoners per 100,000
U.S. 1999 1,785,079 648
Great Britain 1997 68,124 120
Germany 1997 74,317 90
Denmark 1997 3,299 62
Greece 1997 5,577 54
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2. Inequality
Country Year Gini Lowest 10 () Highest 10
U.S. 1997 40.8 1.8 30.5
France 1995 32.7 2.8 25.1
Germany 1994 30 3.3 23.7
Japan 1993 24.9 4.8 21.7
U.K. 1991 36.1 2.6 27.3
Mexico 1998 53.1 1.3 41.7
China 2001 40 2.4 30.4
India 1997 37.8 3.5 33.5
Russia 2001 39.9 1.7 38.7
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and Freedom
Country Gini Freedom 2003
U.S. 40.8 F
France 32.7 F
Germany 30 F
Japan 24.9 F
U.K. 36.1 F
Mexico 53.1 F
China 40 NF
India 37.8 F
Russia 39.9 PF
Do you See Anything?
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But... Neither the cases nor the variables are a
given.Instead, they result from
-Choices/decisions of the researcher, conditioned
by -Possibilities offered by the data, and
-Trends (paradigms) in the academic community.
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Two Basic Aspects of Comparative politics

• Empirical (gathering comparing data)
• Conceptual (producing fair definitions, i.e.
  democracy). Finding the right level of
  abstraction (neither too specific nor too general)

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New Challenges posed by Globalization

• Michael Curtis September 11, 2001
• Isolation is not viable and international
  cooperation is imperative.
• Comparative Politics allows us to
• Understand the politics (and political culture)
  of different countries
• Understand better our own system if we can
  appreciate its similarities to and differences
  from other systems.

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Ruth Lane

• Comparative politics as an area of study goes
  back to Greek antiquity, and has continued
  sporadically throughout history, but has achieved
  a special importance at the close of the
  twentieth century, when economics, technology,
  travel, and communicatins have brought all areas
  of the world into deep interdependence.

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Comparative politics is a field that aspires to
be scientific