POL 231 Study Guide - Comparative Politics, John Stuart Mill, Institutional Analysis

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POL 231
• Professor: English Guy

Document Summary

Back from universal or global to middle-range theories. Methodological change back to small n (4) rational choice theory (game theory): Purpose of comparative politics : describe similarities and differences, build classifications and typologies, explain similarities and differences by formulating and testing hypotheses, predict political events. Approaches to comparative politics : (1) study of single countries: country (2) methodological tradition: description of political systems, institutions and processes of a specific, establishing rules and standards for comparative analysis (3) analytical tradition: empirical substance and method: Testing of hypotheses in order to find generalizations. The evolution of comparative politics has been described by a sequence of paradigms (e. g. traditional, behavioural, post behavioural): but the term paradigm is not accurate in the field of comparative politics, since no single theory was predominating completely. Therefore, it is more adequate to speak of a pre-modern, modern and post- modern evolutionary stage of comparative politics.