Comparing Nations: Concepts, Strategies, Substance

All Chapters within this book are explicitly comparative, the contributors deal with various methodological problems in comparative research; the pitfalls of miscomparing; the use and abuse of statistics; the conceptual homogenization of a heterogeneous perspective; the strategy of comparing similar countries; asynchronic comparisions; and the pendulum between theory and substance. These methodological issues are illustrated by empirical studies of important subjects; the fragility of the presidential regimes; the Japanese exceptionalism; the comparability of Latin America countries; the pertinence of an asynchronic comparison between weak states in post–colonial Africa and Medieval Europe; the deviant case of high stateness in a Muslim country; the empirical testing of the concepts of legitimacy and trust; the limits to quantification; and the specificity of the comparative method. All the contributors are outstanding comparativists, working at the forefront of the comparative field. The team includes Mattei Dogan, Joshua B. Forrest, Seymour Martin Lipset, Ali Kazancigil, John D. Martz, Fred W. Riggs and Giovanni Sartori.

Introdution: Strategies in Comparative Research (Mattei Dogan, French National Centre of Scientific Research, Paris, and Ali Kazancigil, Division for the International Development of Social Sciences, UNESCO, Paris). 1. Compare Why and How: Comparing, Miscomparing and the Comparative Method: Giovanni Sartori, Columbia University, New York. 2. Use and Misuse of Statistics in Comparative Research: Limits to Quantification in Comparative Politics: The Gap between Substance and Method: Mattei Dogan, French National Centre of Scientific Research, Paris. 3. Conceptual Homogenization of a Heterogeneous Field: Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii. 4. Binary Comparisons: American Exceptionalism – Japanese Uniqueness: Seymour Martin Lipset, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. 5. The Deviant Case in Comparative Analysis: High Stateness in a Muslim Society: The Case of Turkey: Ali Kazancigil, Division for the International Development of Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO, Paris. 6. Comparing Similiar Countries: Problems of Conceptualization and Comparability in Latin America: John D. Martz, Pennsylvania State University. 7. Asynchronic Comparisons: Weak States in Post–Colonial Africa and Medieval Europe: Joshua B. Forrest, University of Vermont. 8. The Pendulum Between Theory and Substance: Testing the Concepts of Legitimacy and Trust: Mattei Dogan, French National Centre of Scientific Research, Paris.

Mattei Dogan is Scientific Director at the National Centre of Scientific Research, Paris, and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Ali Kazancigil is Director of the Division for the International Development of Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO, Paris, and Editor of International Social Science Journal.

"The extraordinary political changes of the last few years, East and West, North and South, make obsolete virtually all the conventional approaches to comparative politics. In this book a distinguished group of theorists literally reconceptualize the field with remarkable originality, daring, and imagination. So successfully do they examine cases for comparison, history and the contemporary, similarities and differences, quantitative and qualitative strategies, that the volume is essential reading for anyone studying politics in today′s world." David E. Apter, Yale University