WHAT IS COMPARATIVE POLITICS? Why are we going to study politics but also history, and anthropology, and geography and economics? Dang, there’s a lot of details. Why don’t most Americans already know the basics about the world’s most important countries? Let’s find out… In groups: Guess the value and rank the US, Iran, Russia, China, India, Mexico, and the UK for Population GDP per capita at PPP in US dollars Corruption ranking in the world (out of 200 countries)

WHAT IS COMPARATIVE POLITICS? What is the difference between comparative politics and international relations? Should we have separate “fields” for most disciplines? Why is comparing with other worth our time? (How many of you are worried about earnings? Why?: Data next slide) Seriously, how much can you really learn from studying 7 or so countries? Why don’t even scholars agree on the appropriate way to study other societies? Areas studies vs. the comparative method Qualitative vs. quantitative methods Rational choice vs. society specific

What are some of the key concepts for comparing countries? What are states? How are they different from counties, nations, nation states, and “failed” states? Are there alternative ways of organizing power in a society? What are regimes? How are they different from governments? In what sense are states sovereign? What are political institutions? Do institutions have to be formal structures?

WHY AND HOW DO WE COMPARATIVELY STUDY SOCIETIES? Is there such a thing as a science of comparative politics? What is a science (next point)? What do we miss when we are “scientific”? Some key ideas about what makes some scientific and different than smart punditry: (1) categorization, (2) generalization (3) theory & hypothesis testing with empirical evidence and (4) replication? What are “most-similar” comparisons? (e.g. looking at the advanced democracies or “presidential” systems). What are “most different” comparisons?

What categories are the most useful for comparison? Geo-politics : The 1st, 2nd, and Third World Socio-economic development: e.g., the global South, NICS, tigers, the BRIC, under-developed, developing, advanced nations Geographical and cultural regions (e.g., Latin America or the west vs. the rest? Consolidated (durable and highly institutionalized) vs. transitional regimes (and very likely to change) Intl. relations: Great/regional powers vs everyone else. How strong is the US? Strong vs. weak states (i.e.: states vary by capacity, autonomy, and stability). Nature of by which power is legitimized: Traditional, charismatic, rational/legal How many people have power? One, few, many Three main political regime types: democratic, authoritarian, and totalitarian (basically consensus vs. coercion) Economic regime types: Free-market capitalism/ communism vs. a command economy/ socialism/state capitalism