ISSUES AND METHODS IN

COMPARATIVE POLITICS
(TODD LANDMAN)
(3-85)
PREPARED BY:
SHEENAH SALISE ILUSTRISIMO
MARILYN DEL ROSARIO
POSC 115, 10:30-12:00 MW
Important Key Points
 WHY COMPARE COUNTRIES?

Contextual Description allows political scientists to know what

other countries are like
Classsification makes the world of politics less complex, effectively
providing researchers with data containers into which empirical
evidence is organized
Hypothesis-testing allows the elimination of rival explanations about
particular events, actors, structures, etc. in an effort to help build more
theories.
Prediction it likely outcomes in other countries not included in the
original comparison or outcomes in the future given the presence of
certain antecedent factors and conditions.
 CONTEXTUAL DESCRIPTION
Describing the political phenomena and events of a
particular country or group of countries. (Systematic
research begins with good description.)
Description serves as an important component
studies that aspire to higher levels of explanation
and provide initial hunches about which topics of
research may be of interest and which factors may
be important to explain and observed phenomena
that are related to those topics.
 CLASSIFICATION

To group vast numbers of countries, political

systems, events, etc. into distinct categories with
identifiable and shared characteristics.
In many ways, it represents a higher level of
comparison since it seeks to group many separate
descriptive entities into simpler categories.
 HYPOTHESIS-TESTING

Once described and classified, it

moves to search what best
explains what has been described
and classified.
 PREDICTION

A logical extension, to make predictions about

outcomes in other countries based on the generalization
from the initial comparison, or to make claims about the
future political outcomes.
Probabilistic Terms (Countries with systems of
proportional representation are more likely to have
multiple political parties.)
 MAKING INFERENCE

Using facts we know to learn something about facts

we do not know. ( King et al. 1994-119 after Mill; see also Couvalis 1997)
 TAKE NOTE!

Predictions cannot be made without proper

classification; and classification cannot be made
without good description. It simply states that
comparative politics is scientific, since it aspires
making inferences about political world based on
available evidence and coherent rules of inquiry.
 COMPARING MANY COUNTRIES

Uses experimental method found in

natural science.
Quantitative analysis of aggregate data
collected on desire rent measures.
 COMPARING MANY COUNTRIES
Advantages
Statistical Controls
Control for confounding factors
Extensive coverage of countries
over time and space
Identifying deviant countries or
Outlier that do not have
outcomes expected from the
theory that is being tested.
Disadvantages
Limited availability of data
Many time periods
Validity of measures that are
often crude approximations of
social scientific concepts
Mathematical and computing
skills needed to analyze
increasingly complicated data
 COMPARING FEW COUNTRIES
The selection involves between 2 to more than 20 countries.
Comparable cases strategy or focused comparison and it
achieves control through the careful selection of countries that
are analyzed using a middle level of conceptual abstraction.
Case-oriented (Ragin 1994), since the country is often the unit
of analysis, and the focus tends to be on the similarities and
differences among countries rather than the analytical
relationship between variables.
 SINGLE-COUNTRY STUDIES AS
COMPARISON
Inferences made from single-country studies are
necessarily less secure than those made from the
comparison of several or many countries however are
useful for examining a whole range of comparative issues.
Provide contextual description, generate hypotheses,
confirm and infirm theories. And enrich our understanding of
deviant countries identified through other comparisons.
 SUMMARY

The problems need to be addressed in order to avoid

insecure inferences. Specifying too many inferences
without having enough observations constitutes an
indeterminate research design that often affects single-
country studies and those that compare few countries.
THANK YOU!