January 8, 2015 Chapter 1: Introduction and the Evolution of Comparative Politics

Question 1

What are the two types of questions asked in comparative politics?

Answer 1

Methodological and substantive questions.

Question 2

Methodological questions.

Answer 2

Why compare? How should we compare? What can or should we compare?

Question 3

Substantive questions.

Answer 3

Why are poor countries poor? Why is East Asia rich?

Question 4

What are the 3 subfields of political science?

Answer 4

Political theory, comparative politics, and international relations.

Question 5

What does political theory deal with?

Answer 5

Normative and theoretical questions. What the society ought to be.

Question 6

What does comparative politics deal with?

Answer 6

Empirical questions. What the society is.

Question 7

What does international relations deal with?

Answer 7

The interactions between political systems.

Question 8

Explain the difference between normative and empirical questions.

Answer 8

Normative is how things should be, empirical is how things are.

Question 9

A comparative study must focus on two countries. True or false?

Answer 9

False. A comparative study may focus on a small number of countries (2 or more), or it may incorporate the analysis of a very large range of countries.

Question 10

What are some components of the political system that can be compared?

Answer 10

National, sub-national, supra-national, single elements, or components.

Question 11

What is compared in comparative politics?

Answer 11

Political systems, regimes, institutions, actors, processes, and policies.

Question 12

Describe the comparative politics of pre-modern times using 3 characteristics.

Answer 12

Speculative, normative, and anecdotal.

Question 13

In pre-modern comparative politics, boundaries between ___, ___, and ___ were not clearly defined.

Answer 13

Philosophy, jurisprudence, and history.

Question 14

How was pre-modern comparative politics modernized?

Answer 14

By drawing from the historical theories of evolution (Darwinism and Marxism) and the works of John Stuart Mill.

Question 15

According to John Stuart Mill, the social sciences implied two methods. What are they?

Answer 15

Method of Agreement and Method of Difference.

Question 16

What is John Stuart Mill’s Method of Agreement?

Answer 16

When comparing cases with similar variables. For example, what everyone ate when everyone gets sick at a restaurant.

Question 17

What is John Stuart Mill’s Method of Difference?

Answer 17

When comparing cases with different variables. For example, what the person who didn’t get sick didn’t eat at the restaurant.

Question 18

Modern comparative politics looks at political ___ and ___.

Answer 18

Behaviour, culture.

Question 19

During the ___ and ___, attention turned towards the study of the political behaviour and political attitudes of the public. What was this shift called?

Answer 19

1950’s and 60’s. Behavioural revolution.

Question 20

What triggered the behavioural revolution?

Answer 20

Breakdown of democracies and the rise of new types of regimes.

Question 21

What are some consequences of the behavioural revolution for comparative politics?

Answer 21

• Increase in the variety of political systems.
• Study of non-formal institutions.
• New methodology.
• New language.
• Developments in survey techniques and emerging computerization.

Question 22

Due to the development of new methodology, language, and survey techniques and computerization during the behavioural revolution…

Answer 22

The possibility for social scientists to do number-crunching increased.

Question 23

The behavioural revolution in political science was met with resistance in the ___.

Answer 23

1960’s.

Question 24

What are some signs of the move away from behavioural revolution in the 1960’s?

Answer 24

• Social movements and disobedience among young people.
• Inability to predict youth political apathy, move away from political parties.
• Duplicating an alienated political world by its survey.

Question 25

What is post-modernism?

Answer 25

Contested the idea of objective “social facts.” Instead, social facts are seen as social constructs.

Question 26

Post-modernism is not a completely new theory, but rather a set of ___ ___.

Answer 26

Theoretical assumptions.