PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Comparative Politics
Discuss the subject matter of comparative politics. Outline the limitations of comparative political analysis.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
re CP defined by method, not substance (Lijphart) → subject matter is fluid, widening as the discipline grows rz comparison as the analytical core → what it compares expands from institutions to the whole political process
Body flow
traditional subject matter: formal institutions/constitutions/forms of government, mostly Western → modern shift to political processes + behaviour → systems & functional analysis → political culture, civic attitudes (Almond & Verba) → political economy (economics-politics) → political sociology (state
Counter-view
society) → class structures + modes of production + developing world
Conclusion routes
ounter-view | Macridis: parochial/ethnocentric/static → modern approaches: jargon + abstraction; Marxists: status-quoist + Western-centric → selection bias/many variables/scarce data weaken objectivity → Chandhoke: loss of certainties strains a grand-theory field → over-comparison erases the uniqueness of states usion routes er! limitations real but not disabling → CP still widens political science beyond the West, aids theory-building ez the same breadth that limits also enriches → value lies in comparison handled with care, against conceptual stretching
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
