Page 43 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Comparative Politics and Government

Notes • Mill’s method of concomitant variations is often claimed to be the first systematic formulation
of the modern comparative method. It should be pointed out, however, that Mill himself
thought that the methods of difference and of concomitant variations could not be applied in
the social sciences because sufficiently similar cases could not be found.
• “The absolute elimination of adventitious elements is an ideal which can not really be attained;
. . . one can never be even approximately certain that two societies agree or differ in all
respects save one.”
• An alternative way of maximizing comparability is to analyze a single country diachronically.
Such comparison of the same unit at different times generally offers a better solution to the
control problem than comparison of two or more different but similar units (e.g., within the
same area) at the same time, although the control can never be perfect; the same country is
not really the same at different times.
• Unless the national political system itself constitutes the unit of analysis, comparability can
also be enhanced by focusing on intranation instead of internation comparisons.
• Comparative analysis must avoid the danger of being overwhelmed by large numbers of
variables and, as a result, losing the possibility of discovering controlled relationships, and
it must therefore judiciously restrict itself to the really key variables, omitting those of only
marginal importance.
• “The most obvious need in the field at present is simplification—and simplification on a
rather grand scale—for human intelligence and scientific method can scarcely cope with the
large numbers of variables, the heaps of concepts, and the mountains of data that seem at
present to be required, and indeed to exist, in the field.”
• A final comment is in order about the relationship of comparative politics as a substantive
field and comparison as a method.
• The great advantage of the case study is that by focusing on a single case, that case can be
intensively examined even when the research resources at the investigator’s disposal are
relatively limited. The scientific status of the case study method is somewhat ambiguous,
however, because science is a generalizing activity.
• Purely descriptive case studies do have great utility as basic data-gathering operations, and
can thus contribute indirectly to theory-building. It can even be claimed that “the cumulative
effect of such studies will lead to fruitful generalization,” but only if it is recognized that this
depends on a theoretically oriented secondary analysis of the data collected in atheoretical
case studies.
• Theory-confirming and theory-infirming case studies are analyses of single cases within the
framework of established generalizations. Prior knowledge of the case is limited to a single
variable or to none of the variables that the proposition relates. The case study is a test of the
proposition, which may turn out to be confirmed or infirmed by it. If the case study is of the
theory-confirming type, it strengthens the proposition in question. But, assuming that the
proposition is solidly based on a large number of cases, the demonstration that one more
case fits does not strengthen it a great deal.
• Deviant case analyses are studies of single cases that are known to deviate from established
generalizations. They are selected in order to reveal why the cases are deviant—that is, to
uncover relevant additional variables that were not considered previously, or to refine the
(operational) definitions of some or all of the variables.
• Of the six types of case studies, the hypothesis-generating and the deviant case studies have
the greatest value in terms of their contribution to theory. Each of these two types, however,
has quite different functions in respect to theory-building: The hypothesis-generating case
study serves to generate new hypotheses, while the deviant case study refines and sharpens
existing hypotheses.
• The different types of cases and their unequal potential contributions to theory-building
should be kept in mind in selecting and analyzing a single case.

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