Political Institutions programme - week 1 - Comparison in Political Science
Michaelmas term Week 1. Introduction Week: Comparison in Political Science
Aim of this session: To develop a working understanding of the history, nature and focus of comparative politics
Discussion Topics:
(a) Is comparative politics a method, a sub-field or something else?
(b) What continuities and discontinuities can we identify in the field of comparative politics over time?
(c) Is the scholarship in comparative politics improving ?
(Class handouts available in file 2)
Readings
(a) Early examples
Aristotle. Politics. Book IV, sections 1-12. .
Machiavelli. Discourses. Book I, discourse 2-6
Mill, John Stuart A System ofLogic, Book VI and Book XII
Montesquieu. The Spirit of Laws. Books III -V
Tocqueville, Alexis de Democracy in America
(b) Contemporary commentaries and overviews
Geddes, Barbara. Paradigms and Sand Castles: Theory Building and Research Design in Comparative Politics 2003 Chp 1 pp1-26
Munck, Gerardo and Richard Snyder. Passion Craft and Method in Comparative Politics 2007 pp.32-59 and excerpts from the book in “What has Comparative Politics Accomplished?” in APSA-CP Newsletter of the American Political Science Association Organized Section in Comparative Politics vol 15 no2 pp 26-31
Brown, Archie “Comparative Politics: A View from Britain” APSA-CP Newsletter of the American Political Science Association Organized Section in Comparative Politics Volume 16, Number 1 (Winter 2005)
Hardin, Russell, et.al. (2002), 'Wither political science'
Monroe, Kristen Renwick. 2002. ‘Shaking Things Up? Thoughts about the future of political science’, PS Political Science and Politics 35 (2)
Selections by Elinor Ostrom and Suzanne Hoeber Rudolph
Schmitter, Philippe (1993) “Comparative Politics,” pp. 171-77, in Joel Krieger (ed.), The Oxford Companion to the Politics of the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
Mair, Peter (1996)“Comparative Politics: An Overview,” pp. 309-35, in Robert Goodin and Hans-Dieter Klingemann (eds.), The New Handbook of Political Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
Laitin, David D.(2002), "Comparative Politics: The State of the Subdisicipline," pp. 630-659 in Ira Katznelson and Helen V. Milner (eds.), Political Science: State of the Discipline (New York: W.W. Norton & Washington, DC: American Political Science Association,)
King, Desmond (1998) “The Politics of Social Research: Institutionalizing Public Funding Regimes in the US and Britain,” BJPS 28: 415-444.
Mahoney, James and Reuschemeyer, Dietrich.(2003) Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press
Sartori, Giovanni “Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics,” APSR, 64:4:1033-53.
Bates, Robert (1997) "Area studies and the discipline: a useful controversy?" PS: Political Science & Politics, 30 no. 2 (June).
Johnson, Chalmers (1997) "Preconception vs. observation, or the contributions of rational choice theory and area studies to contemporary political science," PS: Political Science & Politics 30, no. 2 (June).
Other useful readings for this week
New Handbook of Political Science (throughout) - esp. Ch 1, 2
King (1991) - On political methodology
Lichbach and Zuckerman (1997) Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture and Structure
Carpaso, James (2002), Comparative Politics: Diversity and Coherence
