PSCI 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Comparative Politics

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: PSCI 2101
• Professor: Daniel Preece

Document Summary

Research paper proposal due october 14 (10% of course) Chicago style (no footnotes) assignments in discussion groups. Midterm oct. 21 (30%) final exam (30%) in december. As a discipline, deals with empirical questions to understand interaction within political systems. How politics within each country are organized initial analysis related to single country case study. Contemporary analysis uses the comparative method to examine multiple cases. How do we compare? comparative method is often called a quasi-experimental method. This is not the case because only observations and analysis can occur after the fact. Simplification of things happens to answer questions. Not isolation of variables but repeated actions. Understanding interdependent systems does not allow control over variables. Based on its explanations on the co-variation between phenomena, which leads to a focus on the differences and similarities between cases. Three dimensions of comparison: spatial (cross-sectional): geographical division, functional (cross-organizational of cross-process): how individual organizations and groups organize themselves, longitudinal (cross-temporal): how things change over time.