POLS2010 Chap.1 Comparing Political Systems: Approaches and Methods
Comparing Political Systems: Approaches and Methods
This chapter sets up the toolkit the rest of the course depends on. Comparative politics is named after a method rather than a subject, so the first task is to understand what the comparative method can and cannot do next to the experimental, statistical and case study methods.
You will see why explanation needs both a relationship between variables and control of rival variables, why a world of a few dozen democracies makes control hard, and how comparativists respond by adding cases, merging variables or choosing comparable countries.
The chapter closes with the data methods that each later week revisits: elite interviews, cross-national regression, randomised trials and quasi-experiments.
Each method has a typical exam use. Case studies supply mechanisms, comparisons of a few similar countries test whether one institutional difference matters, and large-N analysis shows whether a pattern holds widely.
Knowing which one a question calls for, and what each cannot show, is the skill the course returns to whenever a lecture presents an empirical deep dive.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Comparative politics as a method-named field
- 02
Relationship plus control: what explanation requires
- 03
The many variables, small N problem
- 04
Remedies: more cases, smaller property-space, comparable cases
- 05
Most similar systems designs
- 06
Matching questions to interviews, regressions and experiments
Worked example · free
Ranking three research designs by control
- 1The single federation is a case study: it gives rich detail on mechanisms but almost no control, because nothing varies across cases.
- 1Five similar federations form a comparative design of comparable cases; holding many background conditions constant gives partial control over the few that differ.
- 1Data on 150 countries supports a statistical analysis, which offers the most control because rival variables can be held constant in a model.
- 1The cost of the large-N design is depth: a coefficient shows an association but not the mechanism behind it, so a case study is still needed to explain why.
Key terms
- Comparative method
- A basic research method that establishes empirical relationships among variables across a small number of cases, used when an experiment or large statistical analysis is not possible.
- Most similar systems design
- A comparison of cases that share many background conditions but differ on the factor of interest, so that the difference can be linked to the outcome.
- Property-space
- The set of variable categories in an analysis; reducing it by merging related variables leaves more cases in each cell.
- Quasi-experiment
- A research design that uses naturally occurring variation, such as states adopting a policy at different times, in place of random assignment.
Comparing Political Systems: Approaches and Methods FAQ
Why does comparative politics call itself a method?
Because the field is defined by how it studies politics, by comparing cases, rather than by a subject such as elections or courts. Lijphart describes the comparative method as one of the basic ways of establishing general empirical claims, alongside experiments, statistics and case studies, and the course builds every later week on that idea.
What is the small N problem in comparative politics?
There are only a limited number of countries, and each differs from the others in many ways at once. With many variables and few cases it is hard to rule out rival explanations, so comparativists add cases, combine variables or select comparable countries to regain some control.
When should I use a case study instead of a cross-national regression?
Use a case study when you need to trace how a specific decision or change happened, for example through elite interviews and documents. Use a regression across many countries when you want to know what tends to go with an outcome everywhere you look. Strong essays often pair the two, using the case to supply the mechanism.
What does it mean for a concept to travel?
Sartori’s point is that a concept used in comparison must keep the same meaning in every country it is applied to. If federalism or party means something different in each case, the comparison measures the label rather than the thing, so define your concepts before you compare.
Exam move
Learn this chapter as a set of decisions rather than definitions. For each later week, write down the method used in its deep dive and the number of cases involved, then practise saying in one sentence what kind of control that design achieves and what it cannot show.
Build a short list of comparable country pairs you know well, such as Australia and Canada or Britain and New Zealand, because a well-chosen pair is the quickest way to make an exam answer comparative. Finally, practise turning a descriptive claim into an explanatory one by naming the variable, the outcome and the mechanism. When you finish a later chapter, return here and ask which remedy for small N its deep dive used.
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