Suchergebnisse

This article gauges the impact on comparative politics of the methodological turn in political science through a review of four recent books on the role of comparative historical analysis in the subfield. Two volumes-one edited by James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer and the other edited by Henry Brady and David Collier-defend the accomplishments and strengths of comparative historical analysis. In contrast, the book by Barbara Geddes advocates a scientific approach combining rational choice theory with regression. The article includes a discussion of the interviews conducted by Gerardo Munck and Richard Snyder with prominent comparativists and question whether strategies of inference should be our most pressing concern. Adapted from the source document.

Osa's study is part of a larger literature that looks at the decomposition of communism and postcommunist politics through the prism of the literature on social movements. The book stands out, along with Grzegorz Ekiert and Jan Kubik's Rebellious Civil Society and John Glenn's Framing Democracy, as among the best in this school of research. Osa concentrates on the creation of networks of resistance in communist Poland from early 1950s to the period of Solidarity's formation and suppression in 1980–1982.

This article appeared in Strategic Insights, v.2 issue 5 (May 2003) ; Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.