Purpose and Methods of Comparison and Classification Lesson

Have you ever considered why some countries are successful in the modern world, while others remain locked in poverty? Why are some countries democratic and others not? How are the political institutions of a country structured? Different countries answer these questions in different ways, but they all answer them in one way or another. These are the types of questions political scientists seek to answer by looking at several cases that explore patterns, processes, and regularities among political systems. In Comparative Politics, a sub-field of Political Science, the comparatives uses the comparative method as a way to make comparisons across cases and draw conclusions. By comparing two or more countries, we seek to make some generalizations about politics that could be valid in other cases.

Explore

Review the material below and make sure you can answer these questions before you move on:

How do we effectively compare political systems throughout the world?
How do we distinguish between normative and empirical works of political research?
What are the trends and shifts in comparative politics?

It is now time to watch the Introduction to Comparative Politics presentation. Take notes as you watch the video and reach out to your instructor with any questions.

Challenge

As we learned in the introduction, when researching case studies in comparative politics, researchers generally use one of two approaches, either empirical or normative. Identifying the comparative method used can be tricky, mainly because it is subjective. Generally, the author will state in their thesis the argument they are proving based on the data they have collected; therefore, you can determine the approach of scholarly study by reading the thesis statement. For more information about empirical and normative studies, check out the Dig Deeper links at the end of the lesson.

Takeaway & Sendoff

How do we distinguish between normative and empirical works of political study?

Dig Deeper

Access additional resources to help you discover more information and dig deeper into this lesson's content.

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