MT 14 Comparative Government Class Essay

Matthew Sumption
1

Comparative politics is a sub-field of
political science by virtue of its approach
to inference and its methodologies

This essay will first attempt to define the political science, and set out the scientific method
that political science demands. It will then assess comparative politics, distinguishing it from
comparative government, and briefly discuss its historical origins. It will move on to the
methodologies, approaches and inferences used within comparative politics, and conclude
that as these methods are consistent with that of political science, comparative politics may
rightly be seen as a sub-field of that discipline.
Firstly it is necessary to set out clearly what is meant by the term political science. This
essay shall take it to mean the study of political activity, behaviour and phenomena in a
scientific manner. This then begs the question as what is mean by a scientific manner.
Political science can be rightly so-called because it aspires to follow the scientific method.
Just as science is a way to find provisional explanatory or descriptive answers about the
world in a critical and reasonable way, so must statements made in political science be
falsifiable. If the statements cannot be potentially disproved tested by observations, then
we are no longer in the realm of science, but of tautology or pseudo-science, and hence
political science would not deserve its name. The procedures that generate scientific
statements ought to be public, so that they can be replicated, and thus the accuracy of the
research may be easily assessed. Theoretical arguments need to be parsimonious, that is, as
simple as possible, and have leverage, that is, have maximum impact from minimum facts.
Finally scientific expanations or theories must be logically consistent- a self-contradictory
theory lacks any explanatory force. As King, Keohane and Verba rightly note in Designing
Social Enquiry, Indeed, the distinctive characteristic that sets social science apart from
casual observation is that social science seeks to arrive at valid inferences by the systematic
use of well-established procedures of inquiry. (King, Keohane, & Verba, 1994) So what are
the well-established procedures mentioned?

MT 14 Comparative Government Class Essay
Matthew Sumption
2

The scientific method can be essentially described as below (although it should be noted
that there is no master copy of the scientific method from which all methods are derived,
the below is a list of the common features of scientific enquiry). (Clark, Golder, & Golder,
2013)
1. Question. We ask a question about a certain (in this case political) phenomenon.
2. Theory or Model. We must find a theory that satisfies the conditions above that we
wish to test against empirical data. It may well be a simplified conception of the
world, but a good theory is not one which contains the maximum number of details,
but that which contains only what is needed to explain the relevant political
phenomenon.
3. Hypotheses. We want to find implications that can be derived from the model and
test them against the world.
4. Test Hypotheses involves examining whether the implications of the theory we have
set out to test are indeed consistent with observation. Note that there will never be
any one standard way to approach this, but the approach must be replicable for it to
count as genuine political science research.
5. Evaluate results. We may not conclude that a theory has been proven beyond doubt,
that is only possible within the remit of mathematics. Suffice to say that the most we
may be able to conclude is that the observations corroborate previous findings and
are consistent with what our theory would predict.
Having distinguished political science, and the method that political science follows to
ensure that its statements are scientific, we move on to the question of comparative
politics. Comparative politics can be defined as the study of political phenomena that occur
predominately within countries. Note that it is a broader discipline than comparative
government which is more concerned with questions about the form, development and
effects of institutions in liberal democracies. Comparative politics can also ask questions
about democratisation, or forms of government in non-liberal democracies etc. but again it
is worth bearing in mind that comparative politics is characterised by the method in which
research in it is accomplished, rather than the substantive topics particularly chosen.
The comparative method aims to answer questions through generating hypotheses from a
theory, and then testing them against empirical evidence. The ideal aim is to find necessary
MT 14 Comparative Government Class Essay
Matthew Sumption
3

and sufficient causes of political phenomena. It originates from Mills method of agreement
and his method of difference. The Method of Agreement is one in which cases are
compared which agree with regard to the political phenomenon that is being examined,
and the Method of Disagreement does the same for cases that disagree in the relevant
manner. This process has led on to the most similar systems and most different systems
employed by political scientists such as David Collier, Arend Lijphart and others. (Clark,
Golder, & Golder, 2013)
The comparative method can be seen to fit well into the broader field of political science in
the way that it approaches inference. Within comparative politics we use descriptive
inference to infer from observed facts predictions about as yet unobserved facts in the
future (however with descriptive inference the inference does not tend to be based on the
precise scientific method). We use causal inference to learn about the causal effects and
mechanisms from the data observed. (King, Keohane, & Verba, 1994). The methodologies of
comparative politics may differ depending on the choice at hand. A quantitative method
may be appropriate, in which the hypotheses is tested by generating data that is then
undergoes statistical, numerical or computational analysis. Alternatively a qualitative
method may be appropriate, in which a more in depth, non-statistical analysis is used,
which may well emphasise the context or history or the particular case under study. There
ought not to be any preference for either approach to political science in principle, as King,
Keohane and Verba aptly put it:
In the same research project, some data may be collected that is amenable to statistical analysis,
while other equally significant information is not. Patterns and trends in social, political, or economic
behavior are more readily subjected to quantitative analysis than is the flow of ideas among people
or the difference made by exceptional individual leadership. If we are to understand the rapidly
changing social world, we will need to include information that cannot be easily quantified as well as
that which can. (King, Keohane, & Verba, 1994)

Furthermore, comparative research can vary in its scope, from large N statistical research,
small N comparative studies, or case studies of one specific case. While there are these
differences, and also differences in approach to political science research that have
emerged over the last century (rational choice, collective action theory, historical
institutionalism, social choice theory, structuralism, culture-based approaches etc.), these
MT 14 Comparative Government Class Essay
Matthew Sumption
4

can still be used within comparative politics, and considered political science research
because they fulfil the conditions set out at the beginning: theories that are logically
consistent, parsimonious, have leverage, and falsifiable, evidence collected via the
scientific method, and conclusions that are tentative.

Bibliography
Brady, H., & Collier, D. (2004). Rethinking Social Enquiry. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.
Clark, W. R., Golder, M., & Golder, S. (2013). Principles of Comparative Politics. Washington DC: CQ
Press.
King, G., Keohane, R., & Verba, S. (1994). Designing Social Enquiry. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
Munck, G. (2007). The Past and Present of Comparative Politics. In G. Munck, & R. Snyder, Passion,
Craft and Method in Comparative Politics (pp. 32-59). Baltimore: The John Hopkins
University Press.