Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Describe the meaning and scope of area studies.
- Trace the origin and scope of cross-national studies.
- Identify the best application of subnational studies.
Introduction
If comparative politics involves ‘looking inside’ and comparing countries, regions, institutions, or other entities, then what we are comparing matters. For example, can we just compare any two countries? Is it appropriate to compare two countries that are systematically different from one another? Is there a time when we would want to compare countries that are different? What are the ‘rules’ when it comes to being a comparativist? As we shall see in Chapter Two, case selection is an important process in comparative political science. Yet, over the years, a number of approaches have evolved when it comes to comparing.
Comparativists often study institutions. Institutions are the beliefs, norms, and organizations which structure social and political life. They encompass the rules, norms, and values of a society. March and Olsen (2011), define institutions as
a relatively enduring collection of rules and organized practices, embedded in structures of meaning and resources that are relatively invariant in the face of turnover of individuals and relatively resilient to the idiosyncratic preferences and expectations of individual and changing external circumstances.
Institutions come in many shapes and sizes. Formal institutions are based on a clear set of rules that have been formalized, and often have the authority to enforce the rules, usually through punitive measures. Examples include universities, sports leagues, and corporations. They often have tangibility, identified through a building or a location, such as a university campus, or the headquarters for a sports team or a corporation. However, physicality is not a requirement. Universities have had an online presence for years. Meanwhile, sports teams and corporations now engage with their fans and clients virtually.
Informal institutions are based on an unwritten set of rules that have not necessarily been formalized. These rules are based on conventions on how one should behave. There is no authority that monitors behavior and people are expected to self-regulate. Examples could include societal expectations for waiting in line. Of course, expectations for waiting in line vary depending on the location. Waiting in line for lunch at school is different than waiting in line to check in at a hospital, which is really different from waiting in line at the airport. In the first example, it’s more about who lined up first. In the second example, it is more about whose medical needs are more significant and not about when one checked in. The latter example is about the security of the facility. Since the September 11th terrorist attacks, airport conventions have become formalized, with the Transportation Security Agency monitoring and enforcing behavior in the United States. Thus, conventions can codify informal rules into formal ones over time.
According to Peters (2019), institutions “transcend individuals to involve groups of individuals in some sort of patterned interactions that are predictable”. Given this, the author writes that there are three defining features of institutions: predictability, stability, and that it must affect individual behavior. In this theory, organizations can end up mattering more than the people. If institutions are self-enduring and long-lasting, then institutions can outlive the people that founded them. So, in political science, we can talk about the judiciary instead of judges, or about the presidency instead of presidents. The institution transcends the individual or individuals that occupy that role.
Political institutions are “structures that lend the polity its integrity” (Orren & Skowronek, 1995). They are the space where the majority of politics and political decisions take place. Formal political institutions include written constitutions, executives, such as the US President, legislatures, such as the US Congress, and judiciaries, such as the US Supreme Court. They can also include the military, police forces, and other enforcement agencies. Examples of informal political institutions involve expectations during negotiations. For example, lawmakers may logroll, or exchange promises of support when laws are written. This is the old saying, ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’. In the U.S. democratic system, logrolling is an extremely important part of lawmaking. Without this practice, it is unlikely many laws would get through. Other examples of informal political institutions include levels of corruption, political ideology, such as identifying as liberal or conservative, and political culture. Recent research suggests that political culture may strongly influence the formation and endurance of political institutions.
Area Studies
One of the more traditional ways of comparing is through the field of geographic studies. Area studies have their roots in the age of empires when European powers began expanding their borders beyond the continent of Europe. As imperial forces, such as the British and the French, began to occupy more territory, there was an attempt by ‘enlightened’ Europeans to understand the peoples and the indigenous languages, cultures, and social aspects of the regions they conquered. The people were seen as ‘exotic’ and Eurocentrism was the norm. Museums were filled with items from these civilizations that were often stolen or ‘bought’ by invading forces.
World War II transformed area studies from a colonial enterprise into a geopolitical imperative. Specialists were needed by the U.S. military for the war effort. Campaigns in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North Africa required an understanding of the terrain they were fighting in. Afterward, during the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union fought proxy wars across all continents, which pushed the U.S. military to extensively rely on the university system for expertise. For example, the 1958 National Defense Education Act provided funding for training in critical language studies. Other non-defense organizations engaged in the interdisciplinary pursuit. Entities such as the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies all contributed to the effort. Universities established various centers, programs, and initiatives, such as the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford, Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Asian Studies Initiative at Boston University.
Despite the complicated origins, area studies have become important segments of contemporary university curricula in many countries. By the definition, area studies are multidisciplinary including cross-sections of political science, history, economics, sociology, anthropology, geography, literature, linguistics, religious studies, and theology. They also include geographical areas that were once not considered, such as European Studies.
List Area of Studies
This list provides a nearly comprehensive list of area studies and their fields of study.
- Asia
- Asian Studies
- Asian-Pacific Studies
- East Asian Studies
- Critical Asian Studies
- Southeast Asian Studies
- Modern Asian Studies
- South Asian Studies
- Latin America
- Latin American Studies
- Latino Studies
- Central American Studies
- Caribbean Studies
- Southern Cone Studies
- Amazonia Studies
- Iberian Studies*
- Africa
- African Studies
- Africana Studies
- East African Studies
- Southern African Studies
- West African Studies
- Middle East
- Middle East Studies
- Near Eastern Studies
- Oriental Studies
- Levantine Studies
- Maghrib Studies
- Gulf Studies
- Islamic Studies**
- Europe
- European Studies
- European Union/West European Studies
- East European Studies
- Eurasian Studies
- Post-Soviet/Communist Studies
- Mediterranean Studies
- Southeast European/Balkan Studies
*Iberian Studies involves Spain and Portugal, the two countries in the Iberian peninsula. Even though these two countries are geographically in Europe, they are often grouped under Latin American studies due to the strong associations of Latin America with Iberia.
**Historically, Islamic Studies is often grouped in the same department as Middle Eastern Studies and/or Near Eastern Studies. Western societies often associate the Middle East with Islam, even though only 18% of the World’s Muslims live outside the Middle East. (In this course, Southwest Asia will also be utilized, since it is a term more recognized by the global community.)
Cross-national Studies
Cross-national studies can be broadly defined as “studies that are explicitly comparative, that is students that utilize systematically comparable data from two or more nations” (pg. 714). In this sense, area studies could also be labeled as cross-national studies, as it involves comparing two or more countries in one defined geographical region.
Cross-national research has its roots in the behavioral revolution of the 1950s, when social scientists moved away from studying institutions, which often involved in-depth contextual analyses, and more towards using quantitative measures to understand relationships between variables. The goal was to have external validity, or confidence in one’s conclusions across a larger number of observed cases. For example, in the 1999 book, Patterns of Democracy, author Arend Ljiphart examines thirty-six diverse democracies, comparing institutions ranging from their electoral systems to the role of their central banks to internal policy-making techniques.
In comparative politics, cross-national studies usually involve comparing countries across regions, and outside a specific geographical region. According to Franco, et al (2020), “behavioral political science, or behavioralism, is the study of political behavior and emphasizes the use of surveys and statistics''. A good example is the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organization that facilitates dialogue on macroeconomic policies, which contains 38 member countries from Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australasia. OECD countries have harmonized their economic indicators, which allows for easier comparisons across countries.
Another example of cross-national research includes the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, where scholars meet to design common post-election surveys. There have been five modules since 1996, with a new module released every five years. Not all countries participate in the Study and participation may vary from module to module. The Polity data series is one of the more prominent datasets that ranks countries from strongly democratic to strongly autocratic based on political regime characteristics. Polity IV dataset has analyzed democratic backsliding, state failure, and current regime trends.
One of the major critiques of cross-national studies are the measurements themselves. Can we properly compare across large swaths of countries? Do our measurements have enough validity for generalizations to be made about certain political phenomena? These questions have led some to reject cross-national research in comparative politics. Nevertheless, the attempt to systematize analyses across countries is important. Even if the variables are slightly off in their measurements, which is a problem that all social scientists face, the deliberations on how to measure democracy, capitalism, and election integrity open a much-needed discussion on what these concepts mean. The key, according to Przeworski and Teune (1966) is to “identify ‘equivalent’ phenomena and analyze[ing] the relationships between them in an ‘equivalent’ fashion” (pg. 553).
Subnational Studies
Subnational studies compare subnational governments wholly within one country, or across countries. In the United States, a subnational entity would consist of state governments, such as California, and even smaller governmental units, such as county and city governments. In other countries, it could include provincial governments, regional governments, and other local governments often referred to as municipalities.
Subnational governments vary in regard to their level of sovereignty or fundamental governmental power. Fundamental governments have the power to coerce people to do things they may not want to do, such as paying taxes, or not speeding on the California freeways.
- In countries, such as the United States, sovereignty is shared between the national government in Washington, DC, and the fifty states. This type of system is referred to as a federal government.
- In other countries, the power is concentrated at the national level. In France, most power is in Paris and lies with the President and Parliament. This scenario represents an unitary government.
- Confederal governments have the most sovereignty at the subnational levels, such as Switzerland and more recently Iraq.
Subnational research has its roots in the 1970s, with the third Wave of democratization. As the number of democracies surged, significant decentralization trends emerged, where subnational governments and domestic institutions were empowered. This devolution occurs when the central government in a country deliberately transfers power to a government at a lower level. Devolution is almost always associated with autonomy, where subnational governments have a certain level of power independent of the central government. Good examples include the creation of parliaments in Scotland and Wales, and in Spain, with the Catalan, Basque, and Galician regional governments.
Two different approaches have developed in subnational studies.
- A within-nation comparison examines the subnational governments or institutions within a single country. For example, analyzing all fifty states’ policies towards COVID-19 in the United States.
- A between-nation comparison is conducted across different countries. It could include analyzing autonomous areas within countries or studying contiguous subnational governments. This type of approach is especially useful when looking at postcolonial Africa, where tribal, ethnic, or religious group boundaries overlap national borders.
