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The usefulness of comparative politics
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“Those who only know one country know no country.” – Seymour Martin Lipset.
The scholar Guy Swanson once said, “Thinking without comparison is unthinkable. And, in the absence of comparison, so is all scientific thought and scientific research.” (cited in Ragin, 1992). As such, comparison is necessary for the development of political science. The ‘art of comparing’ can be seen as what experimentation is to most sciences – the principal and most effective way to test theory. (Peters, 1998) This essay seeks to describe the different aspects of the ‘art of comparing’ and also to detail the reasons why the comparative method is a necessary tool in the belt of any political scientist.
Comparative politics is one of three main subfields in political science, alongside political theory and international relations. While political theory deals with theoretical issues about democracy, justice et cetera, comparative politics deals with more empirical questions. To use an example cited by Daniele Caramani in ‘Comparative Politics’ (2011), comparative politics is not interested in whether or not participation is good for democracy. It is instead concerned with the way people participate, and why they participate in certain ways. As such, comparative politics can be viewed as empirical and ‘value-free.’ On the other hand, international relations – as the name suggests – looks at interactions between political systems, whereas comparative politics prefers to study interactions within political systems. Again according to Caramani (2011), comparative politics does not ignore external influences on internal structures, but its ultimate concern is power configurations within sovereign systems.
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...le Caramani, 2011. Comparative Politics. 2 Edition. Oxford University Press, USA.
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4. Guy B. Peters, 1998. Comparative Politics: Theory and Methods (Comparative Government and Politics). Edition. Palgrave Macmillan.
5. Peter Hall 2004 ‘Beyond the Comparative Method’ ASPA- Comparative Politics Newsletter, 15(2): 1-4
6. S.E. Finer, 1997. The History of Government from the Earliest Times: The Intermediate Ages v.2 (Vol 2). Edition. Oxford University Press.
7. Seymour Martin Lipset, 1996. American Exceptionalism : A Double-Edged Sword (AMERICAN HISTORY, POLITICAL THEORY). Edition. W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated.
8. Todd Landman, 2000. Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics: An Introduction. 0 Edition. Routledge.
1. Janda, Kenneth. The Challenge of Democracy. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA. 1999. (Chapter 3 & 4).
Janda, Kenneth. Berry, Jeffrey. Goldman, Jerry (2008). The Challenge of Democracy (9th ed.). Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
It is evident that American exceptionalism has precipitated an incredible amount of debate over time, which has led to various understandings during each historical period. First, the concept has a religious foundation when it is adopted by John Winthrop to mean the promising land for ideal society or “A model of Christian Charity” (Hodgson 1). That is, the Puritans foresaw an exceptional destiny for America as “city upon a hill.” Second, in the Enlightenment era, Franklin gives the idea more secular sense with a rationalism influence. Next, Abess initially welcomed the idea of exceptionalism, but went on to attack it because it involves the destruction of Indian tribes. Third, the American Renaissance authors embraced the concept of Exceptionalism, not only to advocate democracy, but also to free the American identity from the European influence. Fourth, foreign travelers like, de Tocqueville and Chesterton believe in American exceptionalism. For de Tocqueville, democracy is the key success factor of American society, which distinguishes it from any nations elsewhere. For Chesterton, America is an exceptional nation because of its unique foundation: “America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed” (Chesterton 7). That creed is that all men are created
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American exceptionalism is a belief that the United States is different from other nations around the world and as such superior; the term was coined by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831, yet the philosophy of American superiority can be traced all the way back to the days before the United States was even an idea. They saw their new culture as “A city upon a hill” and sought to achieve moral and spiritual perfection. With this moral superiority the colonists, later Americans, saw a duty presented upon them by God and nature to instill such superior values into other cultures and the world. One such example can be clearly seen in the work of St. John de Crèvecoeur in Letters from an American Farmer where the narrator “Farmer James” states his belief
In comparing the average citizen in a democratic nation, say the United States, to that of a non-democratic nation, for instance Egypt, it will be found that the citizen in the democratic nation is generally better off – free of persecution, free from fear of the authorities, and free to express his opinions on governmental matters. And while national conflicts occur everywhere, incidents like violent revolts have shown to be more prevalent in nations where citizens are not allowed to choose who governs them. It is slightly paradoxical that democracy, so inherently flawed in theory, can lead to such successful outcomes in practice. The question, then, becomes: “If democracy has so many weaknesses, why does it work?”
Political Philosophy is typically a study of a wide range of topics such as, justice, liberty, equality, rights, law, politics and the application of a codified law. Depending on what the philosophy is, it usually tends to be a very sensitive and a personal ideology that an individual holds within the reality of their existence. Several of the fundamental topics of political philosophy shape up the society that we live in as these specific topics and their implementation by the state ensures a legitimate government. In Political Philosophy, the aforesaid concepts or topics are evaluated and analyzed with tremendous depth in context to their history and intent. Furthermore, in a rather colloquial sense, political philosophy is generally a point of view which after some deep thinking asks questions such as, what are the government’s duties? Is it legitimate? What makes it legitimate? What are the duties of its citizens? What are their rights? Are they protected? So on and so forth. In the following paper, I will canvass my political philosophy and elaborate on my reasoning behind it.
7th edition. London: Pearson Longman, ed. Garner, R., Ferdinand, P. and Lawson, S. (2009) Introduction to Politics. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Hague, R. & M. Harrop (2010). Comparative Government and Politics. 8th ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 64.
Zakaria, F. (2007). The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (Revised Edition). New York: W. W. Norton.
Comparative politics is an important aspect of political science in that instead of studying how this country functions, it studies why other countries around the world are the way they are. There must be some medium for finding the differences and similarities between one county and another in order discover what can effect such aspects as economic strength, military strength, and the structure of the regime in power. One reason to compare countries is to help ourselves by allowing us to learn about other countries while escaping the ethnocentric fallacy many of us have. The Unites States may have a good government but is not necessarily a perfect government; certain countries may have aspects of their own government that we could learn from and perhaps improve upon our own system. Another reason to compare countries is to understand how countries evolve, discover patterns, and why they evolve in the way they do. Another very important reason to study comparative politics is to better understand how certain regimes work for purposes of international relations and foreign policy. In order to create policy regarding other countries and in order to give aid to these countries we must know how these countries function so that we can work with the countries instead of blindly trying to change them in a way that we seem fit. This is especially important in the modern age with the evolution of a global cooperation between many countries and the fact that the United States has become the watchdog, big brother, and teacher for many of the less developed countries of the world.