May 12 th 2015

Class Introductions Syllabus and Expectations Discussing the who, what, when where And “why?” of Comparative Politics Discussion of Assignments in More Depth How do we compare?

Get into groups of two or three Introduce yourself to your group members You will share with the class: Your group members name Their favourite discipline in high school? What country they have never been to before, that they’d like to visit and why?

Course: Comparative Politics Time: Tuesday and Thursday 12-2pm Place: Rm 334 Office Hours Time: Mon and Wed 12-1:15 Tue and Thur 10-11:30 Place: Social Sciences Office Rm 530

Weekly Readings: 13 Weeks to cover 14 and a half chapters Assignments Attendance/Group Assignments: 10% (done in class, each week) Group Presentation – State Profiles: 15% (Due: Wednesday of Assigned Week) Midterm: 20%: Tuesday June 23 rd Term Paper: 25%: Tuesday July 28th Final Exam: 30% TBA

Cheating and Plagiarism Don’t do it Plagiarism, in particular, is a significant issue that will be reported A Respectful Classroom If you are late, take your seat quietly – do not cause further disruption or you will be asked to leave Be respectful of your peers – their time, their learning and their person One last note on this term re: accommodation due to conflicts with other courses

What is comparative politics? Easiest answer is to understand comparison What sorts of things can we compare? Similarities and differences in: Institutions Policies Outcomes of revolutions or democratization Development or failure to develop Comparative politics was initially derived as the study of one state compared to the USA, though this is no longer the case

Has progressed beyond US-centric focus Small-n and Large-n studies Single case over time Single case At its core, Comparative Politics is about exploring relationships What kind?

Good research comes from good research questions – in comparative politics, these questions typically start with asking “Why?”

Why questions, when framed reasonably (ie without an obvious agenda), tend to require thoughtful responses Where, what, when, who and to a lesser extent how questions can often be answered with straightforward facts (that is to say, you can google them or otherwise find them quite easily) Key to a good comparative question is that it is open ended That is to say, there are potentially several potential answers (or hypotheses) Sometimes there is more than one answer

In Groups or 3-4 consider and record the following concepts: Democracy Justice Freedom

Concepts are important, help us understand the world To be meaningful, though, they need to be broadly understood Consistent, coherent, clear, useful IMPORTANT HINT FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENTS: One way to ensure that there’s a common understanding of a concept, define it! In any discipline, but comparative politics in particular, identifying and using concepts that have been clearly stated in literature is the most effective approach

What are facts? Evidence? “facts used in support of a position, or facts used in support of a hypothesis” Not a point of view or opinion. Your job on assignments in this course is to construct arguments using evidence

Empiricism The use of evidence to build arguments Good evidence must be: Related to the issue at hand Based on a single level of analysis

Case Studies Case Studies can be: A state (country) An event A sub-national unit An international unit A city A group Time Periods

Identifying variables An element or factor that is liable to change or vary from case to case Identifying outcomes (or effects) Something produced or changed in any social or political process Typically looking for an explanation of cause and effect Independent variable (cause) Dependent variable (effect)

Most similar systems: Based on idea that two countries with lots of things in common (like climate, religion, wealth or other factors) should have broadly similar outcomes Despite this, that’s often not the case – this is where comparison comes into play: What’s the cause of different outcomes? Togo and Ghana have broadly similar experiences, yet one has an authoritarian regime, while the other is a democracy Oddly, to use MSS, one needs to identify differences between states first

Sweden A wealthy state with a very strong welfare system If we want to do comparison using a most similar system, what is our first step? Second step?

Most different systems: Based on idea that two countries with nothing in common should have very different outcomes Despite this assumption, as above, it is often not the case. For example, despite differences in religion, geography, population, time in which it happened and the regime which was overthrown, but China and France experienced large social revolutions To use this system, one must identify the similarities first

Norway has one of the world’s highest levels of purchasing power parity What’s the first step if we want to do a most different systems comparison? Second step?

In comparative politics, there are usually additional steps of comparison Comparative checking Process of adding cases to see whether initial observations continue to hold validity Examples: Economic development and democracy

Within-Case comparison Further scrutiny of a case over a longer-time period This can also be an approach to comparison – explaining different outcomes within a state at different points in history Examples: The Province of Alberta