Comparative Politics Service Manual

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Frequently Asked Questions

• How has the discipline of Comparative Politics changed?

  In the last few decades, the discipline of comparative politics has experienced three main and defining changes: in its object of enquiry; in the methods it now deploys to gather data and test its empirical findings; and in the assumptions (about human and political behavior) it employs to build any theoretical propositions.

• Should comparative politics be used to validate theoretical claims?

  Jointly with a growing acceptance among most researchers about the need to develop broad, general propositions about politics, comparative politics has also (p. 545) embraced the use of standard scientific practices to provisionally validate any theoretical claims.

• Should comparative politics be based on game theory?

  Whether one studies a large or small number of cases, and whether one employs econometrics or other techniques, Robert Bates’s chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics argues that one should do theoretically sophisticated work informed by game theory ( Bates 2007 ).

• Is political activism rational choice?

  Political activism has also spawned a large body of research. In her chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, Pippa Norris (2007) reviews the social and psychological model of participation developed by Verba and Nie, as well as the critiques generated from a rational choice perspective.

• What is comparative politics?

  Comparative politics frequently entailed not making comparisons but studying the politics of a foreign country. This methodological choice came hand in hand with an epistemological one. The researcher had to show a deep understanding and a detailed analysis of the political intricacies of a particular polity.

• What is the Oxford Handbook of Political Science?

  Following in the footsteps of the New Handbook of Political Science edited by Robert Goodin and Hans-Dieter Klingemann a decade before, this Oxford Handbook of Political Science will become an indispensable guide to the scope and methods of political science as a whole.

• Should comparative politics be based on game theory?

  Whether one studies a large or small number of cases, and whether one employs econometrics or other techniques, Robert Bates’s chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics argues that one should do theoretically sophisticated work informed by game theory ( Bates 2007 ).

• What is the best book on political economy?

  Carles Boix is Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He has written the books Political Parties, Growth and Equality (1998) and Democracy and Redistribution (2003). Both books won the American Political Science Association Award for the best book on political economy.