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Unit 1: Nature and Scope of Comparative Politics

3. It is a systemic process. Changes in one factor are related to and affect changes in the other Notes
factors.
4. It is a global process. Though originated in Europe, it has now become a world-wide
phenomenon.
5. It is a lengthy process. The totality of the changes which modernisation involves can only be
worked out through time. Transition from tradition to modernity will be measured in
generations.
6. It is a phased process. It is possible to distinguish between levels or phases of modernisation
through which all societies will move.
7. It is a homogeneous process. It produces tendencies towards convergence among societies.
8. It is an irreversible process. There may be temporary breakdowns and occasional reversals in
the elements of modernising process, as a whole it is essentially a secular trend.
9. It is a progressive process. In the long run, it enhances human well-being culturally and
materially.
To a student of comparative government and politics, the states of the ‘third world’ have these
striking features.
1. In such countries politics and government are shaped by the basic facts of scarce economic
resources, extensive poverty and inequality, and a relatively weak position in the international
system.
2. The political legitimacy of most of the countries is very weak. Most of the citizens have no
faith in their political leaders or perhaps in the very nature of the political system of their
country.
3. The effective power of governance in these countries is very limited. The state may have little
real ability to exert its authority much beyond the capital city and a few large urban centres.
The countries of the ‘third world’ suffer from what is given above in spite of the fact that their
political systems have the marks of diversity as an established secular democracy in India, a
theocratic authoritarianism in Pakistan, a semi-democracy in Bangladesh, a budding democracy
in Nepal, a military regime in Myanmar, a communist party-state in China, a new democracy in
South Africa and the like. And yet to one degree or another all experience this problem in ways
that make the ‘third world’ state a distinctive and important entity in the study of comparative
government and politics.
Self-Assessment
1. Choose the correct option:
(i) Comparative government is concerned with the formal political institutions like ............... .
(a) legislature and executive (b) judiciary
(c) bureaucracy (d) all of these.
(ii) Politics has the connotations like ............... .
(a) political activity (b) political process
(c) political power (d) all of these.
(iii) “The First World War” known as:
(a) Industrialised countries (b) developing countries
(c) developed countries (d) none of these.
(iv) The comparative politics became highly significant in ............... .
(a) 1945 (b) 1950 (c) 1919 (d) 1990
(v) Populist government has ............... leadership.
(a) closed (b) open
(c) oligarchy (d) none of these

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