Comparative Politics

Catalog description

Comparative politics is the sub-field within political science that examines the reasons why countries vary in their domestic political institutions, the political behavior of their leaders and citizens, their levels and rates of development, and their public policies. In this course, we will analyze three main questions that are considered central to research in comparative politics: 1. How do democratic countries vary in their political institutions, and why do these differences matter? 2. Why are some countries democracies and others authoritarian? What are the consequences? 3. Why are some countries wealthy while others remain mired in poverty? The goal is not only to acquaint you with these questions and the debates surrounding them, but also to help you develop the tools to reach your reasoned conclusions about them. To do so, you will need fundamental vocabulary and basic social science research tools. The "vocabulary" part includes: 1. an understanding of what the social sciences are all about; 2. what political scientists mean precisely by the terms they use (e.g., development, democracy, proportional representation, bureaucracy); and 3. the kinds of institutions that countries now have or have had recently.