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What is Comparative Politics?

What is International Politics?

Change is a primary theme in politics. What is change?

What does change mean in politics historically? Today?

What are some examples of political change?

What is Democracy?

What is Democratization?

What is Globalization?

Does globalization help or hinder the cause of Democracy?

What is the purpose of Comparison? Different systems – to study the diversity of cases to understand governmental systems Learn more about one case by comparing with other relevant cases Opportunities to learn from a variety of human experiences and different ways of doing things

7 Principle Purposes of Studying Comparative Politics To widen our understanding of politics in other countries To increase our appreciation of the advantages and disadvantages of our own political system and to enable us to learn from other countries To develop a more sophisticated understanding of politics, including the nature of democracy and nondemocratic gov’ts, the relationships between gov’ts and people and other processes To understand the linkages between domestic affairs and international affairs To see the relationship between politics and such fields as science, technology, the environment, public health, law, business, religious, ethnicity, culture & other cleavages To become more informed citizens, so we can more effectively develop our own political opinions, participate in political life, evaluate actions & proposals of political leaders, & make our own political & electoral choices Sharpen our critical thinking skills by applying scientific logic and coherent argumentation to our understanding of political phenomena