Before we begin, some important reminders.
For your paper.
A paper is not a series of paraphrases and quotes placed in a sequential order. Only nonserious students do this.
A paper instead is a set of sequenced paragraphs that you personally composed.
You write it because there is something that you are trying to say to the reader.
You write it because you have knowledge of the topic. You are not John Snow who knows nothing.
And since you are trying to say something, it is possible that not everything you know was personally discovered by you. For example, if you say that Manila is now clean of garbage. Did you come to know that in person? Or is it because it's in the news?
The former, you write it experientially. Going through Manila, one can observe that it is now clean in comparison to a few months ago. Notice I didn't use 1st person perspective, thus making it objective.
The latter, you will have to cite.
De Castro (2019) reported that Manila is now clean of garbage.
Or - Manila is now clean of garbage (2019).
Or - Manila Bulletin documented that Manila is now clean of garbage (De Castro, 2019).
Or - Manila is now clean of garbage (De Castro, 2019).
Or - Manila Bulletin (De Castro, 2019) stated that Manila is now clean of garbage (De Castro, 2019).
Or - De Castro (2019) in the Manila Bulletin documented that Manila is now clean of garbage (De Castro, 2019).
There are many ways to place the citation. There are many ways to report a statement. Or to paraphrase or precis.
Remember to use headings and sub-headings.
Remember to communicate well. One sentence = one idea. More ideas, add sentences. Transition them.
One paragraph - oned idea composed of several sentences.
If your paragraph reaches half the page. There's probably over one idea there already.
Don't make it difficult for your reader.
Especially when the person reading will be grading.
Especially when you want to be published or recognized for your work.
Writing arguments is in your career track, whether it be for law school or any other profession after you graduate with your degree.
Don't settle for 'pwede na.' That's mediocre.
On with the lesson.
Comparative politics is our disciplines' version of experimentation. It is both a method of analysis and a sub discipline of political science. As a method, it was originally proposed by John Stuart MIll. And in his method of analysis, he gave us three modes.
- Analyzing similarities
- Analyzing differences
- Analyzing similarities and differences
These three can be considered as general principles through which we can compare states and and various political phenomenon to understand or arrive at new political concepts, theories, and laws.
Another important principle to note is that we can only compare "things that are similarly situated."
This does not mean that they shouls be the same things or equally the same. Bu there should at least one category to which they can be both be classified.
For example, you are trying to study Federalism. That's actually my M.A. thesis. There are more than Federal states across the globe that can be counted in two hands. So, can you just compare any federal state?
For one, my theory is that federations can lead to economic development. Another is that a federation can lead to better management of national territory. ANd finally, that a federation can help manage cultural differences within a territory.
Hence I looked for model states. Federal, and able to accomplish those three. My own adviser also suggested to select the most senior among them to use experience as a qualification.
With that I ended up with: U.S., Canada, Germany, Australia. And I compared them to the Philippines, to which I intended to apply Federalism. Of course we can't just experiment with the Philippine government, hence the use of the comparative method.
The Philippines may not be federal. But it has similar situations with those states. The republic, along with the other four have cultural fractures, and .the territory might not be the same in size, but they all have the same quality of being in need of management. USA and Canada share the North American continent between them in terms of size. Australia is one entire continent. Germany is the smaller, but it has had cultural fractures not to mention that there was no Germany before, only Germanic tribes. And the Philippines is composed of more than 7,000 islands. All these require a government that can fit the job of managing these. All four federal states are economically well off. The Philippines is not. And that is one of the benefits that I intended to get for the republic.
As a sub-discipline, there are two questions involved:
- Why do we compare? and
- What do we compare?
For the 1st, the answer are the following:
- To contextually describe.
- To classify.
- To test hypotheses.
- To predict outcomes.
The four answers give us the four approaches of comparative research. Contextual description describes a political actor or phenomenon. Imagine yourself a scientist exploring rain forest of the Amazon and finding a new animal or plant. You observe it and document it and find out the characteristics of what makes itr what it is. Applied to political science, you have a state, can you describe it a state? What makes it what it is? Contextual description does not propose theories. It just describes something, it is best in creating concepts.
Classification is a bit more advanced. It still belings to the area of creating concepts, but is already the beginning towards making theories or hypothesizing. Classification dates back to as Early as Aristotle and Plato. But ask yourselves, are there better classifications? Landman, in Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics, features S.E. Finer as having a better classification of governments than Plato's and Aristotles.
From the classification, and the characteristics of states, one can actually come of with testable hypothesis. A good theory should be testable, and can be repeated at another state. One of your readings is a great example. The project done by Wlezein on thermostatic politics. In fact, it is not just a theory anymore, but already moving towards the area of becoming a predictive tool, and thus a law.
A classic example of comparative politics is Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba's work on The Civic Culture. It's not an accurate prdictive work. But it created a good set of classification of the culture of states.
For the answer to the second question, we can compare:
- One (single) country
- Two countries
- Many countries
Comparing one country, just like contextual description is the foundation of comparative work. You begin the analysis by looking inside the case of one country before proceeding with the next.
It is important to note that contextual description is not the only comparative process that can be done with single country studies. In fact many theses are already single country studies which are comparative politics in their own right. For example, an AB Political Science senior student can be writing a thesis to test Almond and Verba's civic culture in the Philippines, thereby accomplishing two things, describe or classify Philippine political culture and test a hypothesis related to Almond and Verba's theory.
Increasing the number of countries increases the scientific characteristic of the study. While decreasing the number increases its abstractness. Abstraction is the process of conceptualization, a focus on the "thingness" of a thing. For example, what makes the culture of Russia unique to Russia. Or what makes the political system of Thailand unique to thailand. By understanding this, political scientists are able to achieve insight into how the politics of a particular land works.
I've prepared a powerpoint to supplement this lecture. Downloadable via the link below:
This powerpoint is about components of political behavior.
When we do comparative politics, there are two possible objects of study in a country, institution or behavior. We've discussed institutions before. Institutions like Federal and Parliamentary governments and constitutions. And institutional arrangements such as distribution and separation of powers. The powerpoint will give you ideas on the various manifestations of political behaviors, such as voting, political communication, and joining political parties.
As a way to apply this lesson, I am also linking to this multimedia review that I wrote on V for Vendetta.
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