Comparative Analysis in Political Science: Requiem or Resurrection?
In: Political studies: the journal of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom, Band 37, Heft 3, S. 340-351
ISSN: 1467-9248
Comparative method in political science is currently going through a critical time, particularly after the failure of developmentalism, and of the classical paradigm of comparative government. This crisis stems from questioning universalism, monodeterminism and the compartmentalism between political science and history. New paradigms are now conceived in order to overcome this crisis: culturalism, social action, historical sociology. Can they be used to construct a new kind of comparison? Can they deal effectively with the new objects of comparison which derive from the increasing differentiation of political situations and political practices that we currently observe?