COMPARATIVE POLITICS
Chapter #1
SHAHBAZ ALEE
Comparative Politics
• Comparison of policies of different countries.
• State to state / within state.
• Study the constitution of different countries.
• Comparative politics is a subfield of political science in which normally we do analysis and
comparison of different state`s institutions and policies.
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• And then non democracies states, there is authoritarian form of
government.
• In china there is One Party System
• In Saudi Arabia there is Monarchy
• In Russia there is Authoritarianism
• There are some fundamental questions which are usually asked in
comparative politics and that questions start with the word `why`.
• e.g. Why some states are poor others are not?
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To search the answers of that questions we will first see causes and effects.
Then our answer will start with the word `because`.
In comparative politics there are two kinds of debates.
1. Empirical: based on, facts, figures, and observations.
2. Normative: based on that how things should be.
BUT
It is not our concerned that how things should be.
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In comparative politics we only focus on first form of debate that is empirical.
It tells how things are?
Why Pakistan`s democracy is weak?
There will be multiple causes.
In comparative politics we basically do analysis of causes and effects.
When it comes to causes and effects there are two case of studies in these cases there are two
phenomena via which we study.
Empirical observation, empirical studies, empirical evidence,
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What do you mean by empirical evidence?
It is based on facts, figures and observe after that we draw conclusion.
This is totally based on your observation and your studies.
Normative evidence, observation, methodology
Ethical consideration.
We discussed that;
Are things ethically and morally justified or not?
United states of America operate their policies all over the world.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick”
This is American Foreign Policy
Another important question in comparative politics.
SHAHBAZ ALEE That is “Concept”.
What is CONCEPT?
Presentation of some ideas, logically, ordered and in structured form.
It must has Clearance, Coherence, Consistency, and Usefulness.
DEMOCRACY
Form of government in which equal Representation and free fair Participation of the public.
Competition among parties, independent institutions.
Institution must be impartial and inclusive.
Democracy is most important concept in comparative politics, because it has four main features of
concept, that are Clearance, Coherence, Consistency, and Usefulness.
JUSTICE
Justice must be free, easy accessible, and based on equity.
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FREEDOM
Raise voice against wrong system,
Freedom to fight for your right.
Freedom is constitutionally defined, politically given.
CONCEPTUALIZATION
Concepts are abstract ideas
And conceptualization is the action or process of forming a concept or idea of something.
Formation of abstract ideas in systematic ways.
OPERATIONALIZATION
From concepts to measure.
Once we have a clear notion of a concept, we need to be able to measure it; that is we need to
operationalization.
The process through which we make a concept measurable.
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What do you mean by concepts to measure?
If there is a democratic state, How do we know that, this state is democratic state?
There must be some measurement by which we know that, this state is democratic or not?
There are some criteria/conditions for democracy, if these criteria are followed in that state we
can say that this state is democratic state.
Two times election, two times government changed, free media, freedom of expression for civil
society.
• A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections.
• The active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life.
• protection of the human rights of all citizens.
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You can give example of Russia, Zimbabwe, USA, and any authoritarian state (UAE)
COMPARATIVE METHOD:
comparison of different states`, societies, institutions, or individuals on the basis of evidence.
we have to prove that if two states are authoritarian, we`ll see difference between them .
If Putin is authoritarian and Xi Jinping is authoritarian then what is difference between them.
For this we`ll compare their societies, institutions,.
or individuals
This is called comparative method in comparative politics.
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VARIABLES AND COMPARISON:
The causes and the outcomes we are trying to measure are called variables, because they vary
from one case to another.
Variation; difference between cases in any given study of comparative politics.
Variation is central component of variable.
TYPES OF VARIABLES:
There are two types of Variables
1. Dependent variable (Outcomes)
2. Independent variable (Cause)
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Democracy is also dependent variable if we improve our institutions, if our media is free, if we
have freedom of speech, there is free and fair elections in our country then the level of
democracy will be high in our country.
Most similar-systems design
(MSS)
A research design in which we compare cases that are similar with respect to a number of factors
but with distinct outcomes.
Causes same
Outcomes different
For instance; If we were to argue that the African country of Ghana has a high level of
democracy because it was colonized by the British, while the neighboring country of Togo has a
low level of democracy because it was colonized by the French.
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Then both the supposed cause and the effect vary from one country to the other.
The effect (outcome) is the level of democracy which is high in one case and low in the other
case.
Factors: colonized, imperial history, same race, same environment, same ethnic
demography, religion same both are Christian.
But
Outcomes: Ghana became democratic
Togo became authoritarian.
Most different-system design
(MDS)
A research design in which we compare cases that differ with respect to multiple factors
but in which the outcome is the same.
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Factors different
Outcomes same
In France 1789 people revolt against monarchy.
In China 1949 communist party of china revolt against Chinese emperor.
Arab Spring started from Tunisia it is still stable.
Contributing factors were different in these countries between outcomes are same.
Their continents are different, their population numbers are different, year of revolution was
different, their regime is different but their outcome is same which is social revolution.
Comparative checking
The process of testing the conclusions from a set of comparisons against additional cases or evidence.
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