Comparative Politics is indeed a science, employing systematic methods to understand political phenomena. COMPARE.EDU.VN delves into the scientific rigor of this field, offering comprehensive comparisons and insights. It provides tools and theory formation which align with their areas of inquiry.
Comparative politics, as a subfield of political science, utilizes scientific methods to study and understand political phenomena across different countries and systems. COMPARE.EDU.VN helps to navigate the complexities, offering detailed analysis and comparative insights to make informed decisions. Explore comparative analysis, political behavior, and governance structures on our website.
1. Understanding the Scientific Nature of Political Science
Many people associate “science” with fields like chemistry or physics, filled with lab experiments and mathematical equations. These are often called “hard sciences,” focusing on the natural or physical world. However, “soft sciences” like psychology, sociology, anthropology, and political science also play a crucial role in scientific understanding. These fields explore human behavior, societal structures, government, decision-making, and the dynamics of power. While both types of sciences contribute significantly, the social sciences, including political science, are often misunderstood due to the complexities of applying the scientific method to human behavior. Physicist Heinz Pagels referred to the social sciences as “sciences of complexity,” predicting that nations mastering these sciences would become the superpowers of the 21st century. Therefore, the advancements made by political science should be recognized and further explored. Science is defined as a systematic and organized approach to inquiry, using scientific methods to build knowledge. Political science, and specifically comparative politics, embodies this definition by using scientific tools and theory to examine its area of study.
2. Comparative Politics as a Subfield
As highlighted in Chapter One, comparative politics aims to understand political structures worldwide in an organized, methodological, and clear manner. Researchers in this field investigate how incentives, patterns, and institutions influence human behavior in various countries. This involves comparing countries that are both similar and different. To effectively study these similarities and differences, it’s essential to distinguish between systematic and random actions or decisions. Political scientists rely on established rules of scientific inquiry to ensure rigorous research. The sections below will explore the characteristics that establish political science as a science, along with the principles of scientific methods and the process of scientific inquiry as applied to comparative politics.
3. The Scientific Foundation of Political Science
The study of human behavior in political relationships has been ongoing for centuries, though not always under strict scientific guidelines. Figures like Thucydides, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle offered observations and ideas about political behavior. While the contributions of philosophers and political thinkers are invaluable, modern political science, like other social sciences, follows the scientific method and draws on a deep philosophical tradition. Starting in the late 1800s, scholars began to treat political science, and other social sciences, as hard sciences that could use the scientific method. Through decades of discussion, political science communities achieved some consensus on defining the characteristics of scientific research in the field.
4. Key Characteristics of Scientific Research in Political Science
Gary King, Robert Keohane, and Sidney Verba’s book, Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research (1994), significantly contributed to defining scientific research in political science. While focused on qualitative research methods, the book also explores the characteristics of scientific research in the field.
According to King, Keohane, and Verba (1994), scientific research has four main features. First, its primary purpose is to make descriptive or causal inferences. An inference is drawing a conclusion about an unobserved phenomenon based on observed (empirical) data. Simply accumulating facts does not constitute scientific research, no matter how systematic the data collection. Scientific research requires going beyond observable information to learn about broader, unobservable phenomena. Inferences help us learn about unobserved facts by describing them based on empirical data. For instance, while we cannot directly observe democracy, political scientists have identified its tenets and characteristics, allowing us to describe it. We can also learn the causal effects from observed data. For example, political scientists study and try to identify the causes of war and the process of successful war termination.
Second, scientific research procedures must be public. Scientific research relies on ‘explicit, codified, and public methods’ to ensure the reliability of studies. It is crucial that the process of gathering and analyzing information is reliable for making inferences. Often, authors are required to share data files or survey questionnaires to allow replication and assessment of reliability and methodology.
Third, because inferences are imperfect, the conclusions of scientific research are also uncertain. Researchers must be aware of the uncertainty in their work to interpret their conclusions effectively. Inferences without uncertainty are not scientific. This relates to a critical characteristic of a good theory: falsifiability (discussed below).
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the method determines whether research is scientific, not the subject matter. Scientific research must follow a set of rules of inference because its validity depends on how closely these rules are followed. Simply put, any subject can be studied scientifically as long as the researcher follows the rules of inference and scientific methods.
5. Exploring the Scientific Method in Political Science
The scientific method is a process for acquiring knowledge through a sequence of steps: question, observation, hypothesis, testing, analysis, and reporting. Ideally, this method builds a body of knowledge and leads to inferences and theories about why phenomena exist or occur.
The scientific method within political science generally involves these steps:
- The research question: Develop a clear, focused, and relevant research question.
- Literature review: Research the context, background, and previous research. A literature review collects and discusses key sources and research on your question. This gives you a full understanding of previous work, enhancing knowledge in the field.
- Theory and hypothesis development: Develop a theory that explains a potential answer to your question. A theory explains how the world works based on experience and observation. From the theory, you’ll construct testable hypotheses. A hypothesis is a specific and testable prediction of what will happen, describing in clear terms what you expect given the circumstances. Variables will be identified within the hypothesis. A variable is a factor that can vary or change. Political scientists, concerned with cause-and-effect, divide variables into independent variables (the cause) and dependent variables (the effect).
- Testing: Test the hypothesis through observation of the relationship between the designated variables.
- Analysis: Review results and draw conclusions. Was the hypothesis correct? If so, report the success. If not, rethink the hypothesis and test again. “No finding is still a finding.”
- Reporting of findings: Report results, whether true, partially true, or false. This is critical for advancing the field. Researchers typically publish findings to make them public and transparent, allowing others to continue research.
6. Step One: Crafting the Research Question
Most research begins with a question. Before describing or explaining a phenomenon, refine your question. Political science research solves unsolved puzzles, so identify a question to answer through rigorous research. What defines a good political research question?
First, a substantive and quality political science question must be relevant to the real political world. This doesn’t mean only addressing current affairs; many political scientists study historical events. However, research results often relate to the current political environment and may have policy implications. A highly hypothetical question may be interesting but must also be testable. Good political science research contributes to the field’s knowledge. Overall, a political science research question must be falsifiable. Falsifiability, coined by Karl Popper, means a statement can be logically contradicted through empirical testing. (Empirical analysis is based on experiment, experience, or observation).
Importantly, some questions are non-falsifiable, meaning they can’t be proven true or false, especially subjective questions (e.g., Are oranges better than lemons?) or those with technical limitations (Do angry ninja-robots live in Alpha Centauri?). A subjective question in political science might be: Which is better, North Dakota or South Dakota? This is subjective and may only result in a matter of taste. If refined, perhaps the researcher is asking: Which state is more economically productive? From here, they could define metrics for economic productivity. A technical limitations problem might be: Does investing in a country’s education system always mean they will eventually become democratic? This has two problems: making a blanket statement about education always leading to democracy and the word “eventually.” A country could become democratic 700 years from now, making it difficult to infer the initial investment in education as the cause.
7. Step Two: Conducting the Literature Review
Once you’ve found your research question, assess your knowledge and search for relevant previous research. Creating a literature review is vital. A literature review collects key sources and previous research on your question, discussing the findings in synthesis with each other. It raises previous research and best practices for research methodologies given your question. In most cases, the literature review will have its own introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction explains the context of the research question and a thesis that ties together the research. The body summarizes and synthesizes all the research, ideally in chronological, thematic, methodological, or theoretical order.
For instance, arrange the research chronologically, from early to most recent research. Or, categorize research based on interrelated themes. Perhaps the most interesting part is the research methods previously employed. In this case, a survey of previous research methods might be ideal. Finally, the literature review may be best organized by considering previous theories. In this case, introducing existing theories in order would be most helpful. In general, showcase, summarize, and synthesize previous research clearly for readers and other scholars interested in the topic.
8. Step Three: Developing Theory and Hypotheses
Given your research question and the organized exploration of previous research in the literature review, consider the theories and hypotheses you’ll use. Usually, the theory helps build your hypotheses. A theory is a statement that explains how the world works based on experience and observation.
A scientific theory consists of assumptions, hypotheses, and independent and dependent variables. First, assumptions are statements taken for granted, necessary for researchers to proceed, so they are not usually challenged. For example, many international relations scholars assume the world is anarchic, meaning there is no central authority to enforce the rules of law. Scientific researchers implicitly assume an objective truth exists. If we started by testing the assumption of an objective truth, we could not proceed with the actual question of interest, since such an assumption isn’t testable. We typically do not challenge assumptions in scientific research.
Political science research involves generating and testing hypotheses. Researchers may start by observing many cases related to a topic. Through inductive reasoning, scientists look at specific situations and attempt to form a hypothesis. Political scientists may also rely on deductive reasoning, making an inference and then testing its truth using evidence and observations. A hypothesis is a specific and testable prediction of what you think will happen, describing in clear terms what you expect given the circumstances. Variables will be identified within the hypothesis. A variable is a factor that can vary or change. Political scientists, concerned with cause-and-effect, divide variables into independent variables (the cause) and dependent variables (the effect).
9. Steps Four and Five: Testing and Analysis Methods
The testing of a theory and set of hypotheses will depend on the research method you decide to employ, which will be discussed in Section 2.2: Four Approaches to Research. For our purposes, the basic research approaches of interest will be: the experimental method, the statistical method, case study methods, and the comparative method. Each one of these methods involves research questions, use of theories to inform our understanding of the research problem, hypothesis testing and/or hypothesis generation.
Similarly, analysis of outcomes can be reliant on the research methodologies employed. As such, analysis is also considered in Section 2.2. Overall, analysis of the findings are critical to the advancement of the field of political science. It is important to interpret findings as accurately and objectively as possible in order to lay the foundations for further research to occur.
10. Step Six: The Importance of Reporting Findings
Reporting your research findings is a critical feature of the scientific method. Granted, not all research will result in publication, though publication is often the goal of research that hopes to extend the political science field. Sometimes research, if not published, is shared through research conferences, books, articles or digital media. Overall, the sharing of information helps lend others to further research into your topic, or helps spawn new and interesting directions of research. Interestingly, one can compare a world where research is shared versus where it was not shared. During the flu pandemic of 1918, many of the countries of the world did not have freedom of the press, including the United States, which had implemented Sedition Acts in the midst of World War I. In the midst of a hindered press and the lack of freedom of speech, many doctors around the world were not able to communicate their ideas or treatment plans for handling the flu pandemic at that time. Inundated with swarms of patients, flummoxed by the nature of a flu that was killing young, healthy adults, but largely sparing older individuals, doctors were trying all sorts of treatment methods, but were unable to broadly share their results of what worked and didn’t work well for treatment.
Contrast this with the COVID-19 pandemic, many doctors were working on treatment plans worldwide, and were able to share their ideas on how to best treat COVID. Initially, there was a heavy reliance on ventilators. In time, some doctors found that repositioning patients on their stomachs may be one way to avoid a ventilator and bide time for the patient to recover without having to resort to a ventilator right away. All told, the sharing of results is critical to learning about a research area or question. If scientists, as well as political scientists, are unable to share what they’ve learned, it can stall the advancement of knowledge altogether.
11. Addressing Common Misconceptions
One common misconception is that political science is too subjective to be a science. However, political scientists use rigorous methodologies to minimize bias and ensure objectivity. Statistical analysis, comparative case studies, and formal modeling are just a few of the tools employed to analyze political phenomena systematically.
Another misconception is that political science lacks predictive power. While predicting human behavior is inherently challenging, political scientists develop models and theories that can forecast trends and outcomes under specific conditions. These predictions are often probabilistic rather than deterministic, acknowledging the complexity and uncertainty of the political world.
12. Real-World Applications of Comparative Politics Research
Comparative politics research has numerous real-world applications. It informs policy decisions, aids in understanding international relations, and helps promote democracy and good governance. By comparing political systems, institutions, and behaviors across countries, researchers can identify best practices and potential pitfalls.
For instance, comparative studies of electoral systems can help countries design more inclusive and representative electoral laws. Research on the causes of civil conflict can inform peacebuilding efforts and conflict resolution strategies. Analyses of welfare states can guide policymakers in designing effective social safety nets.
13. The Role of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
Both quantitative and qualitative methods play crucial roles in comparative politics research. Quantitative methods use statistical analysis to identify patterns and relationships in large datasets. Qualitative methods involve in-depth case studies, interviews, and textual analysis to understand the nuances of political phenomena.
Quantitative methods are useful for testing broad hypotheses and generalizing findings across many cases. Qualitative methods are valuable for exploring complex issues in detail and generating new hypotheses. The best research often combines both approaches, using quantitative methods to identify trends and qualitative methods to explain the underlying mechanisms.
14. Evolving Trends in Comparative Politics
Comparative politics is a dynamic field that continuously evolves to address new challenges and incorporate new approaches. Some current trends include:
- The study of democratization and autocratization: Understanding the factors that promote or hinder democratic transitions is a central concern.
- The analysis of political behavior: Examining how individuals and groups make political decisions, including voting, protesting, and engaging in political activism.
- The investigation of political institutions: Studying the design and effects of institutions such as legislatures, executives, and judiciaries.
- The exploration of political economy: Analyzing the interplay between politics and economics, including issues such as inequality, development, and globalization.
- The impact of technology on politics: Assessing how the internet, social media, and artificial intelligence are transforming political communication, mobilization, and governance.
15. Conclusion: Why Comparative Politics Matters
Comparative politics is a vital field that enhances our understanding of the political world. By employing scientific methods, researchers can systematically analyze political phenomena, test theories, and generate insights that inform policy decisions and promote democracy and good governance. Despite common misconceptions, political science is a rigorous and valuable discipline that contributes to a more informed and engaged citizenry.
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16. FAQs About Comparative Politics as a Science
1. What makes comparative politics a science?
Comparative politics uses the scientific method to systematically analyze political phenomena, test hypotheses, and draw conclusions based on empirical evidence.
2. How do political scientists ensure objectivity in their research?
Political scientists use rigorous methodologies such as statistical analysis, comparative case studies, and formal modeling to minimize bias and ensure objectivity.
3. Can political science predict future events?
While predicting human behavior is challenging, political scientists develop models and theories that can forecast trends and outcomes under specific conditions.
4. What are the real-world applications of comparative politics research?
Comparative politics research informs policy decisions, aids in understanding international relations, and helps promote democracy and good governance.
5. What is the role of quantitative methods in comparative politics?
Quantitative methods use statistical analysis to identify patterns and relationships in large datasets.
6. What is the role of qualitative methods in comparative politics?
Qualitative methods involve in-depth case studies, interviews, and textual analysis to understand the nuances of political phenomena.
7. What are some current trends in comparative politics?
Current trends include the study of democratization and autocratization, the analysis of political behavior, the investigation of political institutions, the exploration of political economy, and the impact of technology on politics.
8. How does comparative politics contribute to a better understanding of the world?
Comparative politics provides insights into the diverse ways in which societies organize themselves and govern themselves, helping us to understand the challenges and opportunities facing different countries.
9. Why is it important to study comparative politics?
Studying comparative politics helps us to become more informed and engaged citizens, capable of making informed decisions about the political issues that affect our lives.
10. Where can I find reliable information and comparisons about political systems?
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