Comparative Politics

Princess Gutierrez

“Mankind has tried the other two roads to peace - the road of political jealousy
and the road of religious bigotry - and found them both equally misleading. Perhaps it
will now try the third, the road of scientific truth, the only road on which the passenger is
not deceived. Science does not, ostrich-like, bury its head amidst perils and difficulties.
It tries to see everything exactly as everything is”. (Professor Garrett P. Serviss).

The essence of science is inquiry. Inquiry involves comparisons that may be

between groups, societies, organizations, or across national boundaries. It involves
clear definitions and the specification and use of measurable variables. In other words,
evidence is gathered and used in order to advance an argument, to explain or predict
political phenomena, since comparison is the basis of scientific knowledge.

Man is not able to know which political system could best work for his country,
lest he compared other systems. Thus, he compares to not only find differences in the
systems, but also similarities. It looks for trends, for changes in patterns; and it tries to
develop general propositions or hypothesis that describe and explain these trends. It
seeks to do such comparisons rigorously and systematically, without personal, partisan,
or ideological axes to grind. It involves hard work, clear thinking, careful and thorough
scholarship, and clear, consistent, and balanced writing. On the global scene, there are
varieties of political systems. The different political systems capture an enormous
variety of institutions, processes, and interactions. Thus, it is difficult to see two
countries that are completely identical. In other words, governments have varied
complexity.

Comparative politics has emerged from the necessity of having to know more
about one’s own political system by looking more closely at other political systems. In
the field of Comparative politics, the term politics has three connotation such as political
activities, political process and political power. Political activity consists of the efforts by
which the conditions of conflicts are created and resolved in a way pertaining to the
interest of people, as far as possible, who play in their part in the struggle for power.
Political process is an extension of political activity. Political power is the major topic in
comparative politics. The term power has been defined by different writers. Friedrich
described power as a certain kind of human relationship. Whereas Tawney explained
power as a capacity of an individual or group of individuals to modify the conduct of
other individuals in a manner which he desires.
 Comparative Politics is essentially, to enable us understand the diversity of
processes and institutions of states across ages. To be sure, when we look at the
politics, economic and institutions of the various states of the world we discover that
there exist wide variations. Therefore, Comparative Politics is that area of study in
political science which adopts the scientific method thereby going beyond the study of
the structure and institutions of government through traditional descriptive approach. It
focuses on explaining the processes and activities involved in the workings of the
institutions of government.

Comparative political scientists have always worked to develop methods to

examine why countries develop and act in the way they do. To put it in another way,
comparative politics is the study of the domestic politics, political institutions, and
conflicts of countries. These methods often times are similar to previous methods, but
often times are different in their approach and reasoning. The trick is to develop a new
and different approach to study. It often encompasses comparisons among countries
and through time within single countries, emphasizing major patterns of similarity and
difference. Political Scientists use models of various kinds to help us understand
political realities. Some models are purely descriptive i.e. describing political or social
phenomenon with emphasis on its main characteristic features. Some models are static
in the sense that they simply define the fundamental attributes of a phenomenon but
they do not describe how those attributes change or develop over time.

In the study of comparative politics, different comparative method is utilized such

as the experimental method, the statistical method and the case study approach. The
fundamental scientific methods are used to test the validity of theoretical propositions,
often with the use of empirical data to establish relationships among two or more
empirical variables or concepts while all other variables are held constant (Lijphart,
A.,1971). In addition, a salient focus of the methodological innovation had been the
defining of institutions as systems of related individual behavior or systems of social
actions.

With regards to the methods, it is evident that there is indeed a discernible move
aimed at building of sophisticated models. Similarly, the new approach has lend itself to
the use of quantitative techniques of statistical measurement and manipulation, as well
as the utility of computer in speeding up its manipulation of large amount of quantitative
data, and in stimulating administrative or military process of decision making.
Considering the widen scope of the approach, the level of scientific tools readily
available for use and the body of knowledge it has generated, the revolution in the study
of comparative government and politics, have yielded a rich body of theoretical
literature, a proliferation of frameworks, paradigms and theories, and elaborate systems
models which are important as part of the intellectual equipment of the student of
political systems.
 References:

Fame, A.M. (1994)”Some Methodological Problems in Comparative Politics;

Journal of Theoretical Polities, 613; 302-322.

Hopkin, J. [2002 (1995)] "Comparative Methods", in Marsh, D. and G. Stoker

(ed.) Theory and Methods in Political Science, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 249-250

Lijphart. 1971. Comparative politics and the comparative method. American Political
Science Review 65 (Sept): 682-93.

Tawney, R. H. (1964) Equality. London: George Allen & Unwin.