Week 13 — Comparative Politics

Why this matters

A business major weighing where a company should open its next office and a public-health student comparing why one clinic network reaches rural towns both meet this week's habit: compare two places with care, and read a ranking for what it measures.

In plain language

This week asks why some countries are rich democracies and others are not, and how you would test an answer. You cannot run an experiment on a country, so political scientists compare cases (the countries, regions, or elections they study side by side) chosen on a plan. You will meet four rival explanations for democratization (the process by which a country becomes democratic), and each one has strong defenders and strong critics. You will also read two published governance indices (scores that combine many expert judgments about a country into one number or category) for what they measure and what they do not. You will not be told which explanation wins; you will be shown how to weigh them and how you could test one.

• Already covered: Week 5 sorted regimes; Week 12 kept correlation apart from cause.
• This week: two comparison designs, state capacity, four explanations, two indices.
• How they connect: you test the field's biggest question with those habits.
• Where we're going next: Week 14, International Relations.

Focus

Why are some countries rich democracies and others not, and how would you test an answer?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] tell a most-similar design from a most-different design
• [ ] place a country on state capacity and regime type
• [ ] state four explanations of democratization with a critique of each
• [ ] read a governance index with its edition and year

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 13 (50 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Do the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes) and practice set (20 minutes).
3. Do the Political Analysis Workshop (90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
4. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: name the design behind a comparison and say what it cannot prove.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor early.

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