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Comparative Politics: Some Points for Discussion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Kees Van Kersbergen
Kees Van Kersbergen*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
*
E-mail: cj.van.kersbergen@fsw.vu.nl
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Abstract

This article is the result of concern about some developments in comparative politics, and it offers some points for discussion. It seems that three trends unduly confine the domain, scope and quality of research in the field. The subdiscipline (1) hardly deals with the social sources of political phenomena anymore and is disproportionally engaged with institutional analysis, (2) almost exclusively focuses on questions of (cross-national) variation and disregards important issues of similarity, and (3) too easily, and without reflection on the history of the field, produces ‘new’ theories and concepts in reaction to the charge that its central concepts (particularly the state) have become theoretically obsolete and empirically valueless.

Keywords

comparative politicsvariation and similarityinstitutionalismpolitical sociology

Information

Type
Debate
Information
European Political Science , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , March 2010, pp. 49 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 European Consortium for Political Research

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