Landman, Todd, 2000.

Issues and Methods in

Comparative Politics : An Introduction.
Routledge, London and New York

By Nur Azizah
Comparative Politics
International Relations Depatment
Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta
 Reason for Comparison :
The Objectives
• Contextual Description

• Classification

• Hypothesis testing

• Prediction
 Contextual Description
• The first objective of comparative politics is the
process of describing the political phenomena
and events of a particular country or group of
countries.
• The goal of contextual description is either more
knowledge about the nation studied, more
knowledge about one’s own political system, or
both
– “Old” Comparative Politics
– “New” Comparative Politics : beyond mere description
• The important point : that all systematic search
begins with good description.
 Macauley’s (1967) Sandino’s Affair :
a fine example of contextual description
• This book is an exhaustive account of Agusto Sandino’s
guerrilla campaign to oust US marines from Nicaragua
after a presidential succession crisis.
• It details the specific events surrounding the succession
crisis, the role of US intervention, the way in which
Sandino upheld his principles of non intervention through
guerrilla attacks on US marines, and the eventual death
of Sandino at the hands of Anasstasio Somoza.
– The focus is on specific events
– The important roles played by the various characters in the
historical events.
 Classification
• In search of cognitive simplification, comparativists
often establish different conceptual classification in order
to group vast numbers of countries, political systems,
events, etc into distinct categories with identifiable and
shared characteristics.
• Classification can be :
– simple dichotomy such as between authoritarianism and
democracy
– or it can be more complex ‘typology’ of regimes and
government systems.
• It reduces the complexity of the world by seeking out
the those qualities that countries share and those that
they do not share.
 Classification
Example : Aristotle’s Politics
• Six types of rule : base on combination of
their form of rule (good or corrupt) and the
number of those who rule (one, few,
many).
• Seek to describe and simplify a more
complex reality by identifying key
features common to each type.
 ARISTOTLE'S CLASSIFICATION
OF TYPES OF GOVERNMENT
Rule By :
Legitimate Illegitimate
Government Government
(for benefit of (for benefit of
all) rulers)
One Monarchy Tyranny
Few Aristocracy Oligarchy
Many Polity Democracy
 Hypothesis Testing
• Despite the difference between contextual
description and classification, both form of
activity contribute to the next objective of
comparison  Hypothesis Testing.
• Once things have been describe and classified,
than move on to search for those factors that
may help explain what has been described and
classified.
• To use comparative methods to help build
theories of politics.
– Often seen as the ‘new’ comparative politics
 Build Theories
• Identify important variables
• Relationship between variables
• Illustrate these relationships comparatively
• Build comprehensive theories
 Powell, 1982,
Contemporary Democracies
• Examines a number of key hypotheses
concerning voter participation in twenty
nine democratic countries.
• He argues that voting participation ought
to be higher in countries with higher level
of economic development (per capita
GNP), a representational constitution,
electoral laws that facilitate voting
 Four Hypotheses on voting participation
Powell, G Bingham, 1982, Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability
and Violence, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

GNP per Capita

(1)

Party System with Voting

(3) Participation
(5)

Representational Favorable
Constitution voting laws
(2) (4)
 Rueschemeyer et al., 1992
• Compare the historical experiences of the
advanced industrial countries – with those of the
developing countries to uncover the relationship
between capitalist development and democracy
• Historical experiences of
Industrial Countries (A,B,C,D,E)

Capitalist DEMOCRACY
Development

Developing Countries (V,W,X,Y,Z)

 PREDICTION
• The final and most difficult objective of
comparative politics is a logical extension
of hypothesis testing, to make predictions
about outcome in other countries base on
generalizations from the initial comparison.
• Prediction tens to be made in probabilistic
terms :
– Countries with systems of proportional
representation are more likely to have
multiple political parties.
 The Science in Political Science

• The Goal :
Description  Classification  Hypothesis testing Prediction
– Require the systematic collection of evidence
(Methods by archival records, official statistics,
interviews, histories, survey)
– An ordering of the evidence
– Search for patterns
– The formulation and testing of contending
explanations
– Building more general theories
 Cases
• Cases are those countries that feature in
the comparative analysis
• Skocpol, Theda , 1979, State and Social
Revolutions. Theda Skocpol examines the
cases of France, Russia and China.
 Unit of Analysis
• Unit of Analysis are objects on which
scholar collect data, such as individual
people, electoral systems, social
movement, etc.
• Example :
– Study of Social Movement in Britain and
France
– The unit of analysis are the movements
 Level of Analysis
• Level of Analysis is political science are divided
between :
– Micro political analysis examines the political activity
of individuals (activist in protest movement).
• Micro analysts believe that the world of politics is shaped by
the actions of ‘structureless agents’
– Macro political analysis focuses on groups of
individual, social classes, political processes,
structure of power.
• Macro analysts believe that politics is shaped by the
unstoppable processes of ‘agentless structure’
 Quantitative and Qualitative
Methods
• Quantitative methods seek to show difference in
number between certain objects of analysis
– How many of them are there ?
– Example : The number of protest event in social
movement
• Qualitative methods seek to show difference in
kind.
– Qualitative method seek to identify and understand
the attributes, characteristics and trait of the
objects of inquiry