Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method

This paper is a systematic analysis of the comparative method. Its emphasis is on both the limitations of the method and the ways in which, despite these limitations, it can be used to maximum advantage. The comparative method is defined and analyzed in terms of its similarities and differences vis-à-vis the experimental and statistical methods. The principal difficulty facing the comparative method is that it must generalize on the basis of relatively few empirical cases. Four specific ways in which this difficulty may be resolved are discussed and illustrated: (1) increasing the number of cases as much as possible by means of longitudinal extension and a global range of analysis, (2) reducing the property space of the analysis, (3) focusing the comparative analysis on “comparable” cases (e.g., by means of area, diachronic, or intranation comparisons), and (4) focusing on the key variables. It is argued that the case study method is closely related to the comparative method. Six types of case studies (the atheoretical, interpretative, hypothesis-generating, theory-confirming, theory-infirming, and deviant case analyses) are distinguished, and their theoretical value is analyzed.

[1]  M. Dicker,et al.  The Methodology of Comparative Research. , 1970 .

[2]  G. Sartori.  Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics , 1970, American Political Science Review.

[3]  Donald T. Campbell,et al.  Testing a Single-Factor Model as an Alternative to the Misuse of Partial Correlations in Hypothesis-Testing Research , 1970 .

[4]  S. Finer.  Almond’s Concept of ‘The Political System’: A Textual Critique , 1970, Government and Opposition.

[5]  C. Kottak.  Towards a Comparative Science of Society , 1970, Comparative Studies in Society and History.

[6]  A. Przeworski,et al.  The logic of comparative social inquiry , 1970 .

[7]  S. Rokkan.  Comparative Research across Cultures and Nations , 1969 .

[8]  Arend Lijphart.  Book Review:Division and Cohesion in Democracy: A Study of Norway Harry Eckstein , 1969 .

[9]  S. Beer.  The Comparative Method and the Study of British Politics , 1968 .

[10]  G. Lewy.  Historical Data in Comparative Political Analysis: A Note on Some Problems of Theory , 1968 .

[11]  J. Lapalombara.  Macrotheories and Microapplications in Comparative Politics: A Widening Chasm , 1968 .

[12]  D. Rustow.  Modernization and Comparative Politics: Prospects in Research and Theory , 1968 .

[13]  A. Inkeles,et al.  International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. , 1968 .

[14]  The Future of the Comparative Method , 1968 .

[15]  J. David Singer,et al.  Quantitative International Politics: Insights and Evidence , 1968 .

[16]  Abend Lijphart,et al.  Typologies of Democratic Systems , 1968 .

[17]  Ralph J. D. Braibanti.  Comparative Political Analytics Reconsidered , 1968, The Journal of Politics.

[18]  S. Eisenstadt.  Social institutions. Comparative study , 1968 .

[19]  C. Levine,et al.  Comparative Government and Politics , 1968 .

[20]  Arend Lijphart.  The Politics of Accommodation: Pluralism and Democracy in the Netherlands , 1968 .

[21]  M. Curtis.  Comparative Government and Politics, an Introductory Essay in Political Science , 1968 .

[22]  J. Galtung.  Theory and methods of social research , 1968 .

[23]  M. C. Hudson.  A Case of Political Underdevelopment , 1967, The Journal of Politics.

[24]  Thomas Barman.  Division and Cohesion in Democracy: A Study of Norway , 1967 .

[25]  I. Wallerstein,et al.  The comparative study of national societies , 1967 .

[26]  E. K. Scheuch.  Society as context in cross-cultural comparisons , 1967 .

[27]  W. Goldschmidt.  Comparative functionalism : an essay in anthropological theory , 1967 .

[28]  Keith F. Otterbein,et al.  Why Exceptions? The Logic of Cross-Cultural Analysis [and Comments and Reply] , 1967, Current Anthropology.

[29]  Arend Lijphart,et al.  New Guinea: The Last Unknown@@@The Trauma of Decolonization: The Dutch and West New Guinea , 1967 .

[30]  W. Mackenzie.  Politics and social science , 1967 .

[31]  Sasha R. Weitman,et al.  The Dynamics of Modernization: A Study in Comparative History. , 1969 .

[32]  R. Farrell,et al.  Approaches to comparative and international politics , 1967 .

[33]  R. Dahl.  Political oppositions in Western democracies , 1967 .

[34]  Gabriel A. Almond,et al.  Political Theory and Political Science , 1966, American Political Science Review.

[35]  David R. Segal,et al.  Division and Cohesion in Democracy: A Study of Norway. , 1966 .

[36]  Arthur L. Kalleberg,et al.  The Logic of Comparison: A Methodological Note on the Comparative Study of Political Systems , 1966, World Politics.

[37]  R. Merritt,et al.  Comparing nations : the use of quantitative data in cross-national research , 1966 .

[38]  R. Dowse.  A Functionalist's Logic , 1966, World Politics.

[39]  F. Moore.  Readings in Cross-Cultural Methodology , 1966 .

[40]  Nico H. Frijda,et al.  On the Scope and Methods of Cross-Cultural Research , 1966 .

[41]  K. Bock.  The Comparative Method of Anthropology , 1966, Comparative Studies in Society and History.

[42]  J. Martz.  The Place of Latin America in the Study of Comparative Politics , 1966, The Journal of Politics.

[43]  E. J. Meehan.  The theory and method of political analysis , 1966 .

[44]  Charles E. Frye.  Parties and Pressure Groups in Weimar and Bonn , 1965, World Politics.

[45]  A. Strauss,et al.  Discovery of Substantive Theory: A Basic Strategy Underlying Qualitative Research , 1965 .

[46]  Harry Eckstein,et al.  Comparative politics : a reader , 1965 .

[47]  Harry Eckstein,et al.  A theory of stable democracy , 1965 .

[48]  R. Alford,et al.  Party and Society: The Anglo-American Democracies. , 1964 .

[49]  M. Duverger.  Méthodes des sciences sociales , 1964 .

[50]  S. Lipset.  The value patterns of democracy : a case study in comparative analysis , 1963 .

[51]  Comparative Political Analysis: A Methodological Note , 1962 .

[52]  R. Needham.  Notes on comparative method and prescriptive alliance. (Met 1 figuur). (A reply to nr. 1604) , 1962 .

[53]  R. Needham.  Notes on Comparative Method and Prescriptive Alliance , 1962 .

[54]  Ernest Nagel,et al.  The Structure of Science , 1962 .

[55]  R. Dahl.  The Behavioral Approach in Political Science: Epitaph for a Monument to a Successful Protest , 1961, American Political Science Review.

[56]  Raoul Naroll,et al.  Two Solutions to Galton's Problem , 1961, Philosophy of Science.

[57]  George I. Blanksten.  Political Groups in Latin America , 1959, American Political Science Review.

[58]  Leslie Lipson.  Party Systems in the United Kingdom and the Older Commonwealth: Causes, Resemblances, and Variations , 1959 .

[59]  S. Neumann.  The Comparative Study of Politics , 1959, Comparative Studies in Society and History.

[60]  Franc̨ois Bourricaud.  Science politique et sociologie: réflexions d'un sociologue , 1958 .

[61]  S. Panter-Brick,et al.  Study of Comparative Government and Politics , 1958 .

[62]  Paul F. Lazarsfeld,et al.  The Language of Social Research; a Reader in the Methodology of Social Research , 1956 .

[63]  R. C. Macridis.  The study of comparative government , 1956 .

[64]  G. Sjoberg.  The Comparative Method in the Social Sciences , 1955, Philosophy of Science.

[65]  SUGGESTIONS FOR A MORE SYSTEMATIC METHOD OF COMPARING POLITICAL UNITS , 1955 .

[66]  F. Eggan.  Social Anthropology and the Method of Controlled Comparison , 1954 .

[67]  R. Spencer.  Method and perspective in anthropology , 1954 .

[68]  I. Schapera,et al.  Wenner-Gren Foundation Supper Conference: Comparative Method in Social Anthropology , 1953 .

[69]  I. Schapera.  Some Comments on Comparative Method in Social Anthropology , 1953 .

[70]  H. Lasswell,et al.  The policy sciences : recent developments in scope and method , 1952 .

[71]  S. Nadel,et al.  The Foundations of Social Anthropology , 1951 .

[72]  David Bicknell Truman,et al.  The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion , 1951 .

[73]  A. R. Radcliffe-Brown.  The Comparative Method in Social Anthropology , 1951 .

[74]  M. Gordon.  Sociological Law and the Deviant Case , 1947 .

[75]  S. Fiske,et al.  The Handbook of Social Psychology , 1935 .

[76]  E. Durkheim,et al.  Rules of Sociological Method , 1964 .

[77]  J. Mill.  A System of Logic , 1843 .