Conceptualising Comparative Politics by Anthony Petros Spanakos

Conceptualising Comparative Politics by Anthony Petros Spanakos

Comparative politics often involves testing of hypotheses using new methodological approaches without giving sufficient attention to the concepts which are fundamental to hypotheses, particularly the ability of these concepts to ‘travel’. Proper operationalising requires deep reflection on the concept, not simply establishing how it should be measured. Conceptualising Comparative Politics – the flagship book of Routledge’s series of the same name – breaks new ground by emphasising the role of thoroughly thinking through concepts and deep familiarity with the case that inform the conceptual reflection.

In this thought- provoking book, established academics as well as emerging scholars in the field collect (and invite) scholarship in the tradition of conceptual comparative politics. The book posits that concepts may be used comparatively as ‘lenses’, ‘building blocks’ and ‘scripts’, and contributors show how these conceptual tools can be employed in original comparative research. Importantly, contributors to Conceptualising Comparative Politics do not simply use concepts in one of these three ways but they apply them with careful consideration of empirical variation. The chapters included in this volume address some of the most contentious issues in comparative politics (populism, state capacity, governance, institutions, elections, secularism, among others) from various geographic regions and model how scholars doing comparative politics might approach such subjects.

Concepts make possible scholarly conversations including creative confrontations across paradigms. Conceptualising Comparative Politics will challenge you to think of how to engage in conceptual comparative inquiry and how to use various methodologically sound techniques to understand and explain comparative politics.

"Concepts and comparisons go hand-in-handBeginning with Weber’s ideal types, which joined the general and the particular, comparative politics has grappled with the problem of delimiting the extension and intension of its language. This volume makes a significant contribution to this important discussion." —Mark Lichbach, University of Maryland

"This book breaks new ground, or re-opens old ground, in the field of description and concepts in the social science, which have been sorely neglected in the rush to measure everything. Politics is a particularly apt terrain for reviving the importance of conceptualization in research because it is the place where people are most likely to disagree about the words they use. Three cheers for taking concepts seriously again!"—Bruce Gilley, Portland State University

"Most ‘how-to-do-it’ manuals in political science pay little or no attention to the concepts being used in comparative research. This collection of essays fills the gap by exploring a wide range of topics in an equally wide variety of settings. I suspect that the volume as a whole will occupy a prominent place on the shelf of such manuals and that the editors’ introductory trilogy of the utility of concepts as ‘lenses,’ ‘building blocks’ and ‘scripts’ will become a valuable component of graduate and post-graduate training. "—Philippe Schmitter, European University Institute

Anthony Petros Spanakos is an associate professor of political science and law at Montclair State University.

Francisco Panizza is Professor of Comparative and Latin American Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.