Title: Actors, Factors, and Choices: An Introduction to Comparative Politics
Author: Neal Carter
Affiliations: Brigham Young University
Context: POLSC 150: Introduction to Comparative Politics
This is the first substantive module used in POLSC 150: Introduction to Comparative Politics. This class is geared primarily toward Political Science, Public Policy and Administration, and International Studies majors in their first or second year of undergraduate studies. Sections typically have between 20 and 45 students. This module is designed for students to learn about three main theoretic approaches (culturalism, institutionalism, and rational choice) and start applying scientific reasoning and methods with special attention given to case selection. Sections are taught MWF for 1 hour each class period.
Required Reading
Preparation includes Chapter 1 of Gregory S Mahler Comparative Politics: Exploring Concepts and Institutions Across Nations 6th ed. (2019 Lynne Rienner), a brief explanation of methods and diagrams I wrote (Methods and Diagrams and Comparative Methods as well as videos I have made (Introduction to Rational Approach; Prisoners’ Dilemma; Chicken).
Learning objectives: after completing the preparation assignments, students should be able to:
- Distinguish among the Institutional, Cultural, and Rationalist approaches in explaining comparative politics.
- Select best Most Similar System and Most Different System cases from a list of options based on the similarity or differences of the values of variables.
- Demonstrate how complex causality poses challenges for causal claims in political analysis.
- Explain how Prisoners’ Dilemma and Chicken can be used to depict political decisions.
Objectives
This early module of the course provides an introduction to the main course objectives. While they will not be able to perform these objectives at a high level, they will develop at least a rudimentary familiarity with them.
By the end of the module, students will be able to:
- explain the three main theoretic approaches (institutionalism, culturalism, rational choice), indicating their primary focus.
- explain historical and current political events using institutionalism, culturalism, and rationalism.
- explain the structure and reasoning of basic rational choice games such as Prisoners’ Dilemma.
- identify dependent and independent variables within the context of political analysis and decision-making.
- explain why complex causality is important for the study of politics.
- choose cases that would be appropriate for both a most similar systems and a most different systems analysis, explaining the reasons for the choice.
For more information on this, and more, modules available in the Resource Bank, please visit the Resource Portal.
