Comparative Approach in Studying Politics - Essay Example

Running head: Comparative Approach in studying politics Advantages and disadvantages in using a Comparative approach to the study of Politics. A comparative approach enables us to think towards the circumstances where there is an absence of a favorable political environment. In such conditions any institutional design is inadequate for the development of the constitutional state as well as other democratic institutions. (Baun et al, 1995) A common believe is that there are two paths to the development of a sort of political culture agreeable to the constitutional state, the internal formation of a single, consensual political culture, or the imposition and maintenance of constitutional principles by force. The linkage between constitutionalism and political culture is not always directed, fixed, or clear, however it depends upon which method of comparison is adopted. While studying comparative approach the unubiquitous issue present now a days is the political comparison of umpteen countries, which most closely approximates the experimental method of science. This comparison is particularly suited to quantitative analysis through measurement and analysis of aggregate data collected on many countries (Lijphart 1971). Although there are examples of qualitative comparisons of such countries, like Huntington's (1996) The Clash of Civilizations and Finer's (1997) History of Government, the majority of studies that compare many countries simultaneously use quantitative methods. This method of comparison requires a higher level of abstraction in its specification of concepts in order to include as many countries as possible. (Landman, 2003) Its main advantages include statistical control to rule out rival explanations, extensive coverage of countries along with its political circumstances, the ability to make strong inferences, and the identification of 'deviant' countries or 'outliers'. Comparing many countries is referred to as 'variable-oriented', since its primary focus is on general dimensions of macro-social variation (Ragin, 1994) and the relationship between variables at a global level of analysis. The extensive coverage of countries allows for stronger inferences and theory building, since a given relationship can be demonstrated to exist with a greater degree of certainty. For example, Gurr (1968) demonstrates that levels of civil conflicts across 114 countries are positively related to the presence of economic, political, short-term, and long-term deprivation. His analysis also explains that this relationship holds for roughly 65 per cent of the countries. More recently, Helliwell (1994) has shown that for 125 countries from 1960-1985 there is a positive relationship between per capita levels of income and democracy. After controlling for the differences between OECD countries, Middle Eastern oil-producing countries, Africa, and Latin America, this relationship is demonstrated to hold for about 60 per cent of the countries. A second advantage of comparing many countries lies in the ability to identify so-called 'deviant' countries. These are countries whose values on the dependent variable are different than expected, given the values on the independent variables (levels of deprivation or per capita income). In testing for the positive relationship between income inequality and political violence in sixty countries, Muller and Seligson (1987) use a simple scatter plot to identify which countries fit their theory and which do not. For example, Brazil, Panama, and Gabon were found to have a lower level of political violence than was expected for the relatively high level of income inequality. On the other hand, the UK was found to have a particularly high level of political violence given its relatively low level of income inequality. By identifying these 'outliers', scholars can look for other explanations that account for their deviance, and they can remove them from their analysis to make more accurate predictions for the remaining countries. (Landman, 2003) Thus, in this case the unexpected level of political violence observed for the UK was due to the Northern Ireland conflict. Such deeper analysis of outliers is also known as conducting crucial case study. Quantitative studies of countries help in building general theories of politics since they allow other scholars to replicate their findings. The data sets for these studies can be read and analysed by a variety of statistical software packages. Scholars doing this kind of research often deposit their data in national data archives, such as the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex, the Roper Center at the University of Connecticut, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, and the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University. More recently, these data sets have been made available in files that can be downloaded from the Internet. In this way, new measures and new methods of analysis can be applied to these data to test the same theories or develop new theories. (Landman, 2003) As a general rule, all scholars should strive to make their data public in an effort to keep a record of the progress of research, as well as help develop new understandings of politics. Qualitative comparison of many countries uphold some disadvantages too, as the comparison is more difficult for two reasons. First, qualitative analysis generally requires a richer level of information, such as deep history of all the countries, which is often difficult to collect and synthesise. Second, it is more difficult to draw strong inferences from these data since they cannot be subjected to statistical analysis. An example is Finer's (1997) attempt to compare regime types across the globe, which represents a monumental task that occupied all the years of his retirement and produced a three-volume study. Thus, Finer is able to analyse different regime types as they have appeared in history to show how those in existence today are products of innovations from the past, but he is still unable to make any larger causal inferences. Even though he privileges those governmental innovations that are still relevant today, he is adamant in stating that these regime types are not the product of a process of linear evolution. Despite the advantages of using comparative analysis in comparing many countries politically, there are some distinct disadvantages, including the availability of data, the validity of measures, and the mathematical and computing skills needed to analyse data. First, collecting relevant data on the independent nation states of the world can be difficult and time-consuming. (Baun et al, 1995) Aggregate data are often published only for selected years or selected countries, making comprehensive comparison difficult. In the past, students had to rely on statistical abstracts and yearbooks produced by governments and international organizations, but the advent of the Internet has made the search for data much easier. By using careful search terms on any of the search engines on the Internet (e.g. Lycos, Google, Metacrawler), students can locate official statistics produced all over the world that can be downloaded quickly. Second, measuring concepts from political science is difficult and can affect the validity of the measures. Valid measures closely approximate the true meaning of a concept, or what the researcher thinks he or she is measuring. For example, the literature on economic development and democracy tends to measure economic development with a country's level of per capita gross domestic product. But some argue that this measure does not take into account the distribution of income, which is also needed in order to capture the nature of a country's level of development. Democracy is also measured in a variety of ways. Freedom House uses abstract scales that measure the degree to which political and civil liberties are protected. Vanhanen (1997) measures democracy with an index that combines the vote share of the smallest party with the level of electoral turnout. Banks (1994) measures the presence of democratic institutions, including the competitiveness of the nomination process, executive effectiveness, legislative effectiveness, legislative selection, and party legitimacy. Many argue that this plethora of democratic measures highlights problems of validity. But despite all the complexities comparative approach provides us with the dimension to which the political efforts are made. References Banks, A.S. (1994) Cross-Polity Time-Series Data Archive, Binghamton, NY: State University of New York at Binghamton. Baun J. Michael & Franklin P. Daniel. (1995) Political Culture and Constitutionalism: A Comparative Approach: M. E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY. Finer, S.E. (1997) The History of Government, Vol. I: Ancient Monarchies and Empires, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Landman Todd. (2003) Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics: An Introduction: Routledge: London. Lijphart, A. (1971) Comparative Politics and Comparative Method, The American Political Science Review, 65(3): 682-693. Muller, E.N. and Seligson, M.A. (1987) Inequality and Insurgency, American Political Science Review, 81(2): 425-451. Ragin C. (1994) Introduction to Qualitative Comparative Analysis, in T. Janoski and A. Hicks (eds) The Comparative Political Economy of the Welfare State, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 299-320. Vanhanen, T. (1997) The Prospects of Democracy, London: Routledge. Word count: 1279 (excluding references) Read More