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What is Comparative Politics?

Kevin Koehler, PhD | Leiden University

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Prologue: What is Comparative Politics?

Political Science

Political Theory

Comparative Politics

International Relations

Comparative Politics as subfield

The social scientific study of political activity and behavior

Studies the philosophical

foundations of politics:

What is a good polity?

The systematic study of domestic politics across

different cases.

How do political systems function?

Studies politics among states and non-state

actors on the international stage.

How do states interact with each other?

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Prologue: What is Comparative Politics?

Comparative Politics as method

Why are some countries democracies while others are not?

Democratic countries tend to be wealthy

Non-democratic countries tend to be poor

Seymour M Lipset (1959):“The more well-to-do a nation, the greater the chances that it will sustain democracy.”

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Ground Rules• The basis for the exam are the readings and the lectures• Readings consist of material from the textbook in addition to three academic articles

which you will work with in the workgroups• All class presentations will be made available to you on my website• You are nevertheless encouraged to take notes during the lecture• Use the review sessions to ask for clarifications• Do not hesitate to also ask questions during the lecture• In the beginning of each lecture, I will give you a number of objectives• A good way of keeping up with the lecture is to ask yourselves after each lecture whether

you have achieved the objectives• If not, go back to the readings, the slides, or ask me during our meetings• The workgroups are linked to the lecture, but they are not where you revise the material

we cover here. If you have questions, ask me!

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https://kevinkoehler.weebly.com/ivp-2020.html

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Grading Rules•The final grades are composed of two basic elements:

•60% final exam-multiple choice-24 March 2020-Re-sit: 9 June 2020•40% Workgroup-Assignment 1: 40%-Assignment 2: 40%-Participation: 20%

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How to Do Well?

•Carefully read the textbook and articles beforethe respective session•Take notes while reading, ask if the lecture does not answer your question•Review the objectives after the lecture: Do you feel you reached the objectives?•Take note of questions you might have. You can always ask during the lecture—larger issues will be dealt with during the review sessions

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What to expect?Week # Date Topic Readings

6(1) Monday, 3 February Course Intro: Comparative Politics HHM, Chapters 1 - 3

(2) Thursday, 6 February The State HHM, Chapter 4

7(3) Monday, 10 February Democracy and Democratization HHM, Chapter 5;

(4) Thursday, 14 February Authoritarian Rule and Backsliding HHM, Chapter 6 Levistky& Way (2002)

8(5) Monday, 17 February Political Participation HHM, Chapters 12 and 13

(6) Thursday, 20 February Parties and Party Systems HHM, Chapter 16; Mair (2006)

9(7) Monday, 24 February Elections and Electoral Behavior HHM, Chapters 15 and 17

(8) Thursday, 27 February Review Session I

10(9) Monday, 2 March Constitutions and Courts HHM, Chapter 7; Hirschl

(2002)

(10) Thursday, 5 March Legislative-Executive Relations HHM, Chapter 8 and 9

11(11) Monday, 9 March Multilevel Governance HHM, Chapter 11

(12) Thursday, 12 March Interest Groups and Social Movements HHM, Chapters 18

12(13) Monday, 16 March Political Economy HHM, Chapter 20

(14) Thursday, 19 March Review Session IITuesday, 24 March Exam

Tuesday, 9 June Re-Sit Exam

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Objectives

After this lecture, you should be able to

1. Define and outline the differences between the key concepts of politics, power, and authority

2. Recognize different theoretical approaches in comparative politics

3. Discuss the role of comparison and describe different comparative designs

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Why Government?

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Please go to: http://ivp_intro.presenterswall.nl

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What is Politics?

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What is Power?

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Power vs Authority

Authority is rightful rule, i.e. domination accepted as legitimate by the ruled.

Weber distinguished three types of authority:1) Traditional2) Charismatic3) Legal-rational

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Please go to: http://ivp_intro.presenterswall.nl

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Theoretical Approaches

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Why Theory?

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Why Theory?“Theories are general statements that describe and explain the causes or effects of classes of phenomena” (Stephen van Evera 1997, 7-8)

Theory supports explanatory reasoning: What are plausible explanations?2

Theory serves as a filter: Which element(s) of reality are important, which are not?1

Theory enables (cautious and probabilistic) prediction: Is likely to happen next?3

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Basic Notions“Theories are general statements that describe and explain the causes or effects of classes of phenomena” (Stephen van Evera 1997, 7-8)

A B For example: Economic development causes democracy

The claim that A causes B is a hypothesis

A and B are both variables; they can take on different values (e.g. levels of income or democracy)

In this example, A is the independent variable (the cause), while B is the dependent variable (the effect): the effect depends on the cause

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Why Compare?

Experimental controlWe design an experiment such that we can observe what happens if we vary one variable while holding all others constant

Statistical controlWe mathematically estimate the effect of a change in a variable given the variation in other (control) variables

Comparative controlWe carefully select cases in order to eliminate potential alternative explanations Arend Lijphart

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Comparative Methods

Quantitative methods

Qualitative methods

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Single Case Studies

According to Lijphart, there are different single case studies:

1) A-theoretical (description)2) Interpretative (application)3) Hypothesis building (formation)4) Theory infirming or confirming (test)5) Deviant case study (refinement)

Arend Lijphart

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Comparative Research Designs

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Most Similar Systems DesignHow does it work?

1. Select cases which are as similar as possible, but differ in terms of the outcome

2. Look for differences among these similar cases

3. If all cases differ in one factor (in addition to the outcome), this is your independent variable.

Example: Peter Evans’s Embedded Autonomy

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Most Dissimilar Systems DesignHow does it work?

1. Select cases which are as dissimilar as possible, but all have the outcome of interest

2. Look for similarities among these different cases

3. If all cases have one factor in common (in addition to the outcome), this is your independent variable.

Example: Theda Skocpol’s States and Social Revolutions

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Scatterplots, Correlation, and Regression Lines

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-11-10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Wea

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Democracy

Saudi Arabia

United StatesNetherlands

MoroccoEgypt

IndiaPhilippines

Qatar

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Challenges of Comparison

Too many variables, too small N

Selection bias

Survivorship bias

Confirmation bias

Value (or normative) bias

Example: Why do social revolutions occur?Example: Studying Qatar as an example of a rich country. Example: Studying state formation by looking only at existing states

Example: Selecting cases which fit the theory

Example: Selecting cases based on whether we like them

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