COMPARATIVE POLITICS COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION
May 2005
Students taking this exam as
a major have six hours to answer one question from Part I, one question from
Part II, and two questions from Part III.
Students taking the exam as a minor have four and one-half hours to
answer one question from Part I and either one question from Part II and one
question from Part III or two questions from Part III.
All students will be
evaluated according to the following criteria: 1) the extent to which they
address the issues raised by the questions; 2) the
breadth and depth of their knowledge of the relevant literature; and 3) their
ability for critical analysis of this literature.
Part I General Theory
A. Karl Marx can be
understood to argue that economic structure assumes a primary explanatory role
in politics. Weber can be understood as
making an argument that institutions are primary. Use contemporary literature in comparative politics
to determine who is right.
B. Political scientists have
attempted to integrate formal theory and empirical analysis in varied subfields
of comparative politics, such as the study of collective action, party
competition for votes, legislative behavior, and multiparty government. Assess
the analytical leverage and the limits of extant efforts to evaluate the
empirical implications of formal theory in comparative politics. What is the
“extra value added” of such work? What are the special challenges that such
work must overcome? How successful have
these efforts been?
C. Marx and Engels wrote
that “the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling
ideas … The class which has the means of material
production a its disposal, has control
at the same time over the means of mental production so
that thereby, generally speaking,
the ideas of those who lack the means of mental
production are subject to it.” (The
German
Ideology). In Domination and the Arts of Resistance, James
C. Scott contends
that people in positions of subordination behave
strategically be developing “public
transcripts” and “hidden transcripts”. Scott observes, “…the more menacing the
power,
the thicker the mask.” (p. 3) Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses
of these alternative
positions in developing an argument about the impact of power
on culture.
Part II Methodology
A. Methodologists
have proposed "process tracing" as a
important element of qualitative research designs. What is process tracing? How does it differ from other forms of
qualitative research? What is its
underlying rationale? When is it best used instead of other methodologies? And
with what degree of success has it been used?
B. Nicholas Sambanis (“Using Case Studies to Expand Economic Models of
Civil War,” Perspectives on Politics 2004 [2]: 259) has recently issued
a stern critique of research that “use[s] macro-level data to test hypotheses
about civil war that are based on ideas about micro-level behavior (e.g., why
individuals would join an insurgency).”
As Sambanis puts it:
“The
already significant gap between the micro-level theories and their macro-level
implications is magnified when the micro-macro relationships are studied solely
through cross-national statistical analyses. Such studies often overlook
information about the causal pathways that link individual or group behavior
with the outbreak of civil war. …[B]y combining
statistical and case study work we can better understand the political
processes that lead societies to civil war.”
Consider the problems of
linking micro-level behavior with macro-level outcomes. Assess the capacity of the approach advocated
by Sambanis – i.e. combining statistical and case
study approaches – in resolving these problems.
C. Much of the recent work by
political science methodologies in comparative politics is based on the contention
that we should employ diverse tool to meet shared standards. (e.g. Brady and
Collier 2004; Gerring 2001, etc.) Explain are the standards that we should to
assess the relative success of different methodologies. Demonstrate how we should utilize these
standards by applying them to at least two works that employ different
methodologies.
Part III Applied Theory
A. The influential article of
Przeworski and Limongi
(1997) and book Development and
Democracy, Przeworski et al. 2000 challenge the classic proposition that
economic development favors democracy.
Discuss their critique of this “endogenous theory” and in light of their
arguments, assess the status of the contention that economic development plays
an important role in promoting democracy.
B. In his book, Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson
argues that the creation of nations was an inclusive process through which
local identities became national.
Anthony Marx (2003, 1998) critiques
C. Scott Mainwaring (Rethinking Party Systems in the Third Wave
of Democratization, 1999) argues that most of the classic, ostensibly
general work on parties and party systems (e.g., Duverger,
Sartori) rests on the implicit assumption that the
parties and systems under study are relatively highly institutionalized. Assess the import and purchase of this critique.
As you do so, compare individual parties and system-level dynamics in at least
one established democracy and one “third-wave” democracy.
D. Is the welfare state
doomed? Critically review the welfare
state literature to assess the impact of globalization and demographic change
on the evolution and future of the welfare state.
E. Hector Schamis
writes, “While an explicit conception of power tends to be absent from the work
of economics, political scientists underline the importance of negative power,
that is, the capacity of the executive to disorganize the opposition. Seen in this light, the ‘politics of economic
adjustment’ reads merely as the ‘politics of neutralizing the losers.’ In fact, the lack of a conception of positive
power and the neglect of proactive coalition action overlooks a most crucial
aspect of the economic reform process: how coalitions organize in support
of liberalization.” (1999, p. 237) Survey
the literature on the politics of economic reform. Explain whether you agree with Schamis. Discuss
what we know about the ways in which politicians organize support for
coalitions and the extent to which their efforts are constrained by preexisting
economic and political conditions. Give
examples from at least two countries to support you views.