PSCI 1123 - Introduction to Comparative Politics

This course examines comparative politics as a subfield of political science that compares pursuit of power across countries. Its main focus is on a comparative research method as a way to collect and evaluate data, compare cases, test our assumptions, draw conclusions, and make predictions/recommendations. The course aims to answer the following fundamental questions of comparative politics: Why are national governments organized differently? What basic characteristics lead us to group countries together? What are political institutions and why are some institutions more likely than others to produce political stability and accountability? How do we measure the effectiveness of institutions? How do we differentiate opinion from empirical research? Some key concepts of comparative politics will recur throughout the course: nation states, political institutions, regimes, power, sovereignty, legitimacy, citizenship, patriotism, nationalism, ethnicity, human rights, political culture, geopolitics, political violence, globalization, and others. 3 credits.