Comparative government

Encyclopedia : C : CO : COM : Comparative government

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Comparative government or comparative politics is a method in political science for obtaining evidence of causal effects by comparing the varying forms of government in the world, and the states they govern, although governments across different periods of history may also be the units of comparison. There are several methods at work in comparative government (method of difference as opposed method of similarity and variable as opposed case study approaches) but all have in common the explanation of differential changes in dependent variable by the presence of different independent variables in the systems under comparison. The nature of dependent (what is to be explained) and independent variables (what explains the pattern of the dependent variable) in the method is almost unlimited, from government form to electoral system to economic or cultural factors

It has areas of concentration that include topics such as democratization, state-society relations, identity and ethnic politics, social movements, institutional analysis, and political economy. Methodologies used in comparative politics include rational choice theory; and political cultural, political economy, and institutional approaches. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Thomas Hobbes are some of the key early thinkers in this subdiscipline.

Connection to international relations

Comparative politics is not a subfield of international relations. How each government conducts its foreign policy is a consideration inside comparative politics. International relations is the study of these interactions and the process of these interactions. These two fields do of course overlap, but are separate fields of study.

The study of political institutions

Some of the major units of study in the subject are political institutions such as

• executive
• legislative branch
• judicial
• bureaucratic elites

See also

• Comparing Unitary and Federal Systems of Government
• Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)
• Politics of Australia and Canada compared
• Politics of Australia and New Zealand compared
• Canadian and American politics compared

External link

• [What is comparative politics?]

 

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