SYNOPSIS OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS
Comparative Politics is a significant subdiscipline of political science. As the word itself presents with a meaning of comparison of politics, but we cannot state that comparative politics is merely a study of comparison as this statement would not be enough to elucidate what comparative politics is about. As a subject matter, comparative politics focuses on explaining political phenomena that takes place within a body politic, society, state, or a political system. Or in simpler term, comparative politics is the study and comparison of domestic politics across countries. To depict a clear picture of how this study works we must understand the following statement. Comparative politics is a way of understanding, comparing, classifying, and explaining political phenomena (policymaking, parliament, interest groups, parties) that happens in a country, state, or a society.
The study’s primary focus is to look into a country’s domestic politics, to analyze which political party holds the government of that country, their policies and how they are functioning, how they are interacting, and most importantly the leaders of that country and how influenced are the decisions that they make? The units or cases taken up for comparison in this study can be of two or more countries, regions within one country, or same political unit at different times in history. Comparative Politics provides a methodical and explicit way of understanding and making sense of all the social complexities and political movements that happens around us.
The subdiscipline of political science was not always based on empirical and analytical nature. To understand the difference of nature and scope of comparative politics with time, first we need to look back at the time of WW II, when the field was entirely dependent on the terms and conditions of the West (as much of the world was colonized by western powers). During this period, the majority of research conducted by scholars in the United States was devoted to a handful of countries like Britain, France, and Germany. Since biasness was a particularly serious problem in the early conceptualization of comparative politics as a field of study. Therefore, we can easily conclude that the early development of the subject was based on ethnocentric biasness, where these selective scholars were blindsided by the dominance of the US and looked down on developing countries (third world countries).
Events took a drastic turn during the WW II, when the US policymaker needed an urgent assistance of an area specialist, someone who knew people with a strong understanding of specific cultures, societies, languages, and political systems. Thus, this need caused a certain spark among people for the need of knowledge about different aspects of various places.
One can call the year 1950 as the watershed year for comparative politics. So, with this significant change of thinking, the nature of the field also changed from traditional approach to a more modern approach. At the outset, the nature of the field was solely the study of foreign countries and its government, therefore also known as comparative government. It was only based on normative and philosophical approach, and it was just the study of foreign government primarily focused on western European countries. From 1950s, the nature of the discipline changed as traditional approach paved its way into a more modern (contemporary) approach, where things sounded more logical. The Modern approach was based on empirical, analytical, fact and scientific based study.
Comparative politics is important because it helps us understand the nature and functioning of political systems all around the globe. Any sort of political behavior, arrangement, reality, and pattern. Comparative politics gives us a clear picture of questions after comparing it. It provides us with the answers of why things are different and similar between one or two countries. It is also a core tool through which political scientists formulate hypothesis and build theories. It acts as a laboratory for all the political theories giving it credibility, precision, validity, and reliability by testing them. Most importantly comparative politics helps us in understanding the political behaviors of human being in the light of studying any political process or reality. In conclusion, it plays a huge role in enhancing our understanding and expanding the level of analyzing big questions about the affairs of the world.