Significance of comparative politics. Comparative Politics 2022-10-23
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Comparative politics, a subfield of political science, is the study of politics within and across countries. It involves comparing and contrasting political systems, institutions, and processes in different countries to understand how they function and how they influence each other. The significance of comparative politics lies in its ability to provide a deeper understanding of the political world and to identify patterns and trends that can inform policy decisions.
One of the main goals of comparative politics is to identify and understand the various factors that shape political systems and outcomes. These factors can include a country's history, culture, economic system, and international relationships. By studying these factors and how they interact, comparative politics helps us to understand the unique political systems and processes of different countries.
Another key benefit of comparative politics is its ability to identify patterns and trends that can inform policy decisions. For example, by studying the political systems and policies of different countries, we can learn what works and what doesn't in terms of promoting economic growth, reducing inequality, or improving governance. This knowledge can help policymakers in one country to adopt policies and strategies that have proven successful in other countries.
In addition to its practical applications, comparative politics also has theoretical significance. By studying the political systems of different countries, we can better understand the underlying principles of politics and how these principles are applied in different contexts. This knowledge can help to inform our understanding of how political systems evolve and change over time, and how different political systems respond to different challenges.
Overall, the significance of comparative politics lies in its ability to provide a deeper understanding of the political world and to inform policy decisions. By studying the political systems and processes of different countries, we can identify patterns and trends that can help us to understand how politics works and to make better policy decisions.
Nature of Comparative Politics : Characteristics & Significance
It was debated by the post-behaviouralists that Political Science must consider basic issues of society such as justice, liberty, equality, democracy to make research relevant to the society. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Although for different reasons, in non-Western democracies also, parliaments have continued to remain weak institutions. . Modernisation Theory is criticised for being western-centric: it assumes the level of modernisation of countries in the Global North to be the universal ideal. This has also drawn attention to the issue of their funding.
Like Easton, Almond also believes that all political systems perform input and output functions. The democratization of Eastern European and Latin American countries has been largely supported by regional organizations e. The legal approach is applied to national as well as international politics. But as countries are such massive, complex structures, how can we compare them fairly? Fundamentally, MSSD begins with similar variables between subjects and attempts to explore why the outcome is different between the subjects. This belief was epitomized by the introduction of democratic rule in South Africa in 1994. It includes the study of even extra-constitutional agencies having their immediate connection, open or tacit, with formal governmental organs. According to Lijphart, democracies might be classified according to the two ideal typesâmajoritarian democracies and consensual democraciesâas a consequence of the structure of their social cleavages and institutional rules.
These are fundamental scientific methods which can be used to test the validity of theoretical propositions, often with the use of empirical data i. From the profiles, autobiographies, descriptions by authors and journalists investigators know what event occurred in the past. Is the concept of culture a more acceptable one? One may claim that no nation-state not even the most important ones like the United States or China is able to control domestic decision-making processes, autonomously steer its own economic dynamics, or develop its own separate cultural identity. From the Marxist perspective, the real nature of politics, has to be assumed from "the hidden basis of the entire social structure. Evaluation of Historical Approach: The historical approach to the study of politics has numerous challenges from several quarters. However, those issues generally deal with the implications, functioning, and transformation of democracy. One major theory was Inglehart's Post-Materialistic Theory.
Sociological institutionalism, thus, underestimates the impact of competition and conflict between actors and between their contrasting interpretations of the appropriate behavior on the definition of those same institutions. The features, merits, demerits, similarities and dissimilarities of political institutions were compared and an attempt was made to identify the best political institutions. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America, comparative politics has focused, in particular, on the functioning of elections, thus contributing to identify criteria for evaluating the legitimacy of the electoral process. The Importance Of Culture In Canada What is culture; culture is defined as the beliefs, customs, arts, etc. Beer and Harry Eckstein, Harvard University; George I. Despite this, Africa, Asia, and Latin America have made tremendous progress toward democratization, although North Africa and the Middle East have yet to make a major step in this regard.
The political process gets information and signals from the environment and then changes such information and signals into authoritative values. It is well recognized that the impact of success and failure of the economic policies depend upon the government. Singling out institutions and neglecting individuals cannot be pronounced as proper methods to study politics. Such hypotheses concern the relations between the variables that are held to structure the political phenomenon one wishes to study, investigate, or interpret. These output functions are rule making, rule application and rule adjudication. Dahl familiarized the term polyarchy to characterize American politics and other political systems that are open, inclusive, and competitive Polyarchy, 1971. Arend Lijphart claimed that "the phrase comparative politics specifies the "how" but does not postulate the "what" of the analysis".
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Now the study of actual behaviour of political institutions and political processes came to be the adopted as the main area of study. Variable: in scientific research, a variable is an element or a factor that might change. Sociological institutionalism exhibits a strategic interest in culture i. However, the regulations in the UK allow there to be more restrictions and limitations for these groups compared to the US where they have more power. When concepts are so abstract that they can be applied to the entire world, then, analytical vagueness is inevitable.
Comparative Politics: Meaning, Scope and Its Evolution
Consequently, the possibility of comparing one variable or even a set of variables against identical conditions is illusory. Though, descriptive-institutional approach is slightly old, political experts still concentrate chiefly on scrutinising the major political institutions of the state such as the executive, legislature, the civil service, the judiciary and local government, and from these examinations, valuable insights as to their organisation can be drawn, proposals for reform conversed and general conclusions obtainable. These events provide the best materials upon which theory and principles of political science are built. These approaches are mainly concerned with scientific study of politics. Comparative politics is concerned with similarities and differences between different countries in diverse regions of the world. It describes differences between as well as similarities among countries.
In far-reaching terms, an institution can be described as 'any persistent system of activities in any pattern of group behaviour. The Statistical Method The statistical method, however, is ever more widely employed by political scientists. Comparative Politics continues to be a very popular area of study. Many critics observed that this approach determines what is in the interest of the public and he identifies interest more with ends that with means. .
The Importance of Studying Comparative Politics Essay
They came from an era where there was little motivation to work. Indeed, it is rarely the case that the actors intend to create institutions or that the actors correctly foresee the future impact of institutions. Still others have investigated the role of civil society in fostering or contrasting democratization, according to an approach not dissimilar to the social capital approach. Principles of comparative politics The comparisons between countries usually focus on one issue at a time and focus on just a period in time. Behavioural approach: Behaviouralism is considered as contemporary approach to the study of political science. Even in international politics, the influence of psychology is visible.
This includes studying international relations, where topics such as war, trade, diplomacy, and culture are analyzed through a cross-national or international framework. Third, it has been argued that rational choice institutionalism runs the risk of turning into a remodeled functionalist theory, to the extent that it explains the existence of an institution with reference to the effects that it produces. David Easton who was a faithful supporter of behaviouralism later became a strong opponent of behaviouralism. Institutions matter because they make collective action possible by lowering the transaction costs between the actors, by furnishing reliable information on the rules of the transaction itself, and by sanctioning free riding, thus making individual behavior predictable. Decision Making Approach is another example of simulation approach. In the age of globalization, such single-minded bias can prove to be costly as it can lead to undermining positive characteristics of other cultures.
