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There Are 4 Comparative Methods and 2 Analysis Method Are Introduced

There are 4 comparative politics methods introduced: experimental, historical, statistical, and comparative. The experimental method uses controlled experiments to test theories. The historical method focuses on chronology and cause/effect through historical analysis. The statistical method looks for variations across groups using large data sets. The comparative method selectively compares countries that are most similar or most different to identify patterns of variation.

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Hieu Le
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39 views

There Are 4 Comparative Methods and 2 Analysis Method Are Introduced

There are 4 comparative politics methods introduced: experimental, historical, statistical, and comparative. The experimental method uses controlled experiments to test theories. The historical method focuses on chronology and cause/effect through historical analysis. The statistical method looks for variations across groups using large data sets. The comparative method selectively compares countries that are most similar or most different to identify patterns of variation.

Uploaded by

Hieu Le
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

Based on this video, please tell me how many comparative politics methods are
introduced.

There are 4 comparative methods and 2 analysis method are introduced

2. Please elaborate each comparative politics method and give me an example for each of
them.

ANALYSIS METHODS

Normative analysis puts an emphasis on values (what is good and what is bad?). Evaluates political
institutions against an absolute standard

- Deductive approach (start with an abstract concept then apply to real phenomenon)

Ex: Prescribing what the government should do given an event or situation

Empirical analysis is not about asking, “What is the best form of government”, it is instead about asking,
“Is there a better form of government”. In other words, this analysis method emphasize on discovering
futher aspect. Evaluates political institutions against a relative standard

- Look at different characteristics to get the common point then make a generalization

Ex: Neither of the subjects analyzed is perfect, but we might assess which one is doing a better job
accrording to some criteria

COMPARATIVE METHODS

Experimental method

- Random assignment
- Control&Test groups
- Compare difference
 Theory -> Observation

Ex: Starts with a theory: “I think citrus will combat scurvy, how could I tell if this story is true?”, then
create a set of observation by controll two groups to observe whether the proposed difference actually
develops

Backwards of this method when we put in appication to comparative politics are:

- It is almost impossible to apply in comparative politics since the world is not a controlled
laboratory.
- It is also unethical to place a theory to a country just to observe the outcome.

What comparative is trying to take advantage of is a weak link called “natural experiment”. Sometimes
policies and events create the seperation of two groups and we can trank the streams from one point in
time.
Ex: There was a refenrendum on Scottish independence. If they had declared themselves independent,
we might compare the path of Wales (did not choose independence) vs Scotland (proclaim
independence) in which these two countries have the similar size and level of economic development.

Historical method

- Focus on chronology (before and after)


- Cause & effect

Ex: Why do they have this policy? Who make this decision?

- Process (outlining step by step of how things occur)

Ex: How did the decision to go to the war in Vietnam actually occurred? Who was part of the
decision? What information were they considering?

- Counterfactual (What if?)


 Observation -> Theory

Ex: See how things really occurred and based on historical observation, we try to create a theory about
why country do what they do?

Backwards of this method when we put in appication to comparative politics are:

- The method focuses on a variation over time instead of looking for different variations at one
time
- Long ago data might be poor and it could be challenging to produce a strong evidence

Nevertheless, it can be useful to recognize a country that is the exception to the rule as we look at its
process.

Ex: Japan culturally belongs in Asia and shares the Confucian Buddhist tradition as most of countries in
this continent. It can be interesting when we test culture vs institutions because it shares a culture of
Asia but has a level of development in institutions that are very similar to Western Europe.

Statistical method

- A lot of this is about the average tendency of groups


- Finding difference variation maybe not over time but over space to examince
 Observation -> Theory

Backwards of this method when we put in appication to comparative politics are:

- This method has some advantages but might not be the most informative thing because the
average effect would be unimportant as no country or person is average.
- When comparing countries, there are too few observations to achieve statistical significance and
these units are not uniform.

Ex: We may be interested in what form of representative democracy best brings about consensus. We
may compare many different municipalities or countries representing democracy, using the huge data
set through Microsoft Excel including people are who are eligible to vote over the years and the GDP
growth after each year’s elevtion, etc.

Comparative method

What comparative method tries to do is not taking random sets of countries but choosing countries
particularly because they have similar of different characteristics. There is no randomness in
experimental method, no huge data set like statistical method but creating selevtive, structured
comparisons.

What we try to do in this method is the “historical quasi-experiments”. In this experiment, we take all
the controlled data from history including the variables that might affect the cause and effect we are
looking at.

The last and most important thing that we do in this method is finding the “patterns of variation”. There
are two basic strategies to do this:

Most different comparision

- Choose two countries that are completely different except one small characteristic in which they
overlap

Ex: Comparing Boswana and the United States, both countries are democracry except the economic
development. The United States is an advanced economy while Boswana has a low level of economic
development. So if we are looking for “what does democracy explain?” we might be able to look at
these two very different countries and look at one characteristic that they are both relatively long-term
robust democracies.

Most similar comparison

- Choose two countries that are fundamentally alike in almost every characteristics except one
small different thing. This is most commonly used to compare a country to itself over time.

Ex: Comparing France in 1979 with France in 1985, then look at the policies of the government
interveining. France would still share the same culture as well as more or less the same public and
interest. However, what we examine is maybe the policies of one particular leadership group or one
particular government and see how they affects the policies going forward.

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