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Comparative Politics and Government Vinod C.V., Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 2: Comparative Method and Politics

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
2.1 Comparative Method and Comparative Politics
2.2 Comparative Method in Comparative Politics
2.3 Traditional Approach to the Study of Comparative Politics
2.4 Summary
2.5 Key-Words
2.6 Review Questions
2.7 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit students will be able to:
• Explain the comparative method and comparative politics.
• Describe the comparative method in comparative politics.
• Know the traditional approach to the study of comparative politics.

Introduction

There are different methods of studying politics other than comparative: experimental, statistical
and case study. All of them have their own advantages and disadvantages but here we shall
concentrate on exploring comparative method.
Arend Lijphart argues that “the term “comparative politics” indicates the “how” but does not
specify the “what” of the analysis”. Comparativists usually compare and contrast different
component parts of countries’ political systems and try to find differences and certain tendencies.
Comparison consists of the following basic operations: compiling a list of things to compare,
sorting and classifying them and, eventually, carrying out a basic act of comparison and making
relevant conclusions. Comparative method can be used to compare political systems of different
countries and also it can be used to compare political systems over time. There are different
“schools” of the subject in the study of comparative politics as well – institutionalism and
functionalism. Institutionalism refers to the practice of comparing political institutions such as
governments, political parties etc.
Functionalism is opposed to institutionalism in the way that however different political systems
are, they all have the same functions. In functionalism, these are functions that matter, not
institutions.
The main advantage of comparative method is that it makes the study of politics more structured
and conclusions derived with this method are more precise. For example, we shall compare electoral
systems in the UK and Germany. In Britain the electoral system is referred as single member
plurality system. This is when the candidate with the largest number of votes in each constituency
wins the seat in parliament. This system allows some parties to secure the majority of seats
because even a small surge of support will significantly increase the number of seats for winning
party comparing to the parties coming after. One of the strongest advantages of single member
plurality system is that it produces clear-cut electoral decisions with single-party governments
able to exercise leadership. But the disadvantage of this system is when the party achieves the
second place in the majority of seats, it will suffer from under-representation in the parliament,

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