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Universiteit Leiden (UL)
International Relations and Organizations
Introduction to Comparative Politics (6441HICPAY)
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Notes – Introduction to Comparative Politics 2023
Lecture 01: 06/02/2023
Comparative Politics and Comparative Method
Comparative politics emerged in the late 19th century. It is a sub-field of political science studying political
structures, actors, and processes within a political system, analysing them empirically by exploring their
similarities and differences across systems.
Comparative politics is the systematic study of government and politics in different countries. It is designed to
better understand them by drawing out their contrasts and similarities.
Issues in comparative politics
- Comparative politics focuses on very different units of analysis (various components, levels, etc.).
- There is no one comparative method (depending on the number of cases).
- To compare cases or countries with each other, we need to have good sources of information. This is
often not the case, as seen during the Covid-19 pandemic, where some countries reported their cases and
others were reluctant to do so.
The benefits of comparison
Knowledge about other countries/ describing government and politics
- Comparison helps search for facts: how governments are structured, how institutions work and relate to
one another, how citizens connect to their governments, and how governments perform. First,
comparative politics was a descriptive study and only became an understanding study later.
Providing context
- Understanding a country’s politics will remain one-dimensional unless we contextualise all the
information. Otherwise, knowing if something is usual or unusual would not be possible.
Classification/ typologies
- Typology is the system by which the types of something (states, languages, buildings, etc.) are classified
according to their standard features. However, most typologies in the social sciences are contested.
- Government and politics are too complex to be reduced to a single table. Nonetheless, typologies give
valuable points of reference.
Hypothesis testing
Making predictions
- Comparison helps us make generalisations that can help us predict the outcome of political events.
,Notes – Introduction to Comparative Politics 2023
Governments and governance
The term government describes the institutions and processes through which societies are governed.
Institutions are formal or informal organisations or practices with rules and procedures marked by durability and
internal complexity.
Governance describes the process by which decisions, laws, and policies are made, with or without the input of
formal institutions. Governance is less about the command-and-control function of government and more about
the broader task of public regulation, a role that political leaders and bureaucrats share with other bodies. The
European Union is a system of governance rather than a big government.
Politics
Politics is how people negotiate and compete in making and executing shared or collective decisions.
- It is a collective activity occurring between and among people.
- It involves deciding a course of action and avoiding or resolving a disagreement.
- Once reached, political decisions become policy for the group, binding and committing its members even if
some resist.
Politics can be seen as a peaceful process that leads to a collective good or a continuation of the war.
Power
Power describes the capacity to bring about intended effects. The term is often used as a synonym for influence.
However, it is also used more narrowly to refer to more forceful modes of influence, like using threats.
There are three dimensions of power, described by Steven Lukes:
1. First dimension
Who prevails when preferences conflict?
Decision-making. Decisions are made on issues over which an observable conflict of interest exists.
2. Second dimension
Who controls whether preferences are expressed?
Non-decision-making. Decisions are prevented from being taken on issues with an observable conflict of
interest.
3. Third dimension
Who shapes preferences?
Ideological. Potential issues are kept out of politics altogether, whether through social forces, institutional
practices, or the decisions of individuals.
Authority
Authority describes the right to rule. It creates its power so long as people accept that the person in authority has
the right to make decisions. It provides the foundation for the state, as people accept its legitimacy.
Regimes and political systems
A regime is a political type based on a set of principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures, including,
for example, a democratic regime or an authoritarian regime.
A political system is the interaction and institutions that make up a regime.
,Notes – Introduction to Comparative Politics 2023
Understanding comparison
The comparative method is the process by which different cases are compared to better understand their
qualities and to develop hypotheses, theories, and concepts. The goal of comparison is to help encourage critical
thinking about government and politics.
The comparison involves researching and learning the key facts about political systems, thinking comparatively
about their significance, questioning and challenging what we find, and drawing conclusions from the facts.
Most political research tries to be empirical (descriptive) in that it asks why things are the way they are in a way
that tries to be value-neutral. Other researchers might use a normative approach to achieve the desired outcome.
Many scholars argue that these two approaches should be combined to make sound arguments.
The value of theory to comparison lies mainly in how it can help pull together a cluster of otherwise unstructured
observations and facts into a framework we can use to guide ourselves as we seek to answer questions.
Case study method
The case study method involves an intensive examination of one case and the context in which it exists. The most
significant advantage of single cases is that they offer an in-depth understanding of a phenomenon. However, it is
hard to generalise from findings from case studies.
Unlike statistical analysis, which seeks to identify relationships between variables measured across a series of
observations, case analysis aims to identify how various factors interact in the context of the studied example.
There are two significant types of case studies:
- Deviant case study
Identifies and examines an exception to what is generally expected from an established theory (useful for
theory finding and correction), an exception to the rule.
- Theory-testing case study
It is probing a theory in a new empirical context to which it is supposed to apply.
Comparative method (small-N comparison)
The comparative method is a systematic analysis of a small number of cases. It tends to be descriptive rather than
predictive, emphasising depth over breadth and studying phenomena within their natural setting.
The problems are that there are too few cases and too many variables. A solution for that is to increase the
number of cases. However, this is often not possible. Researchers often introduce the MSSD (most similar system
design).
Another problem is the selection of the dependent variable. The research introduces the MDSD (most dissimilar
system design) to overcome this.
1. The most similar system design (MSSD)
It involves using cases that are as similar as possible except regarding the object of study. The more
similar the units being compared are, the more probable it should be to isolate the factors responsible for
differences between them.
2. The most dissimilar system design (MDSD)
It involves using cases that are different in many ways but have something in common that needs
explanation. The goal is to try and rule out the differences’ effects and identify/ isolate the similarities’
explanations.
, Notes – Introduction to Comparative Politics 2023
Quantitative method (Statistical method)
The quantitative method emphasises breadth over depth and uses statistical analysis to understand a large-N of
cases. It tries to quantify data and to generalise the results to a larger population, generates information through
experiments and survey research and demands a familiarity with the technical language of statistics.
The basic form of quantitative research is counting numbers (how many countries have conservative
governments). When there are more variables (changeable feature, factor, quantity, or element), one needs to
differentiate between a dependent variable (the factor we wish to explain) and an independent variable (the
factor believed to influence the dependent variable).
Statistics enable us to see a correlation (a relationship between two or more variables), often shown in a
regression line (summarising the variables). A regression line also lets us see outliers (observations furthest away
from the predicted line).
Historical method
By drawing from history, the historical method provides more cases to study and helps understand the historical
roots of today’s political system. A more focused and speculative version of the historical method is asking
hypothetical questions using counterfactuals. These experiments can never be tested.
The challenges of comparison
Selection biases
The cases selected for the study might be unrepresentative, limiting the significance of the findings.
Value bias arises when researchers allow themselves to be guided by factors such as politics, culture, race,
gender, religion, age, economic situation, and other values.
Confirmation bias arises when researchers have a view in mind before they start their research and pay attention
only to the facts and analyses that support their view.
Survivorship bias arises when non-survivors of a process are excluded from the study. Communist states that have
survived differ from those that have not survived.
Access bias occurs because of the differences in ease of access to information in different case study countries.
Understanding meaning
The same phenomenon can mean different things in different countries, creating difficulties in comparison.
Globalisation
States cannot be regarded as entirely independent of each other, thus reducing the adequate number of cases.
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