PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Comparative Politics
Discuss the main limitations of the comparative method to the study of Political Science.
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
kr! comparison is the sub-discipline’s defining method (Lijphart: method, not substance) → but the method itself is limited e2 comparison stands in for the laboratory control social science lacks (Sartori) → yet that scientific promise is only partly met
Body flow
subject resists science (behaviour not purely rational → no uniform scientific method → individuals & institutions follow no fixed rules → scarce data on systems and non-state actors) → comparison distorts (generalisation from few cases → systems too different or too alike resist it: India vs Bahrain → concepts travel badly, Sartori’s conceptual stretching) → bias intrudes (cases picked to fit a prior view → Macridis: non-comparative, descriptive, parochial, Eurocentric → Marxist charge: systems approach status-quoist, Western as ideal)
Counter-view
ounter-view | flaws temper the method, not discredit it → careful operationalisation + Landman’s moderate universalism keep comparison workable
Conclusion routes
ysion routes kr) read comparative findings as provisional generalisations, not scientific laws R2 despite its limits, comparison still widens political science beyond the West
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
