12.4: Conclusion

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Summarize the current state and relevance of comparative politics.

Concluding Thoughts

Comparative politics as a field of study has a wide scope, capable of addressing issues of democracy and authoritarianism, state-controlled market systems versus free-market systems, economic and political inequalities, environmentalism and climate change, the origins and causes of political conflict, as well as the complex and fragile nature of political identities. Globalization has made the world a smaller place, where political, social, and economic forces can affect everyone and everything on the planet. At the same time, the effects of globalization are experienced at ground level, where people work, go to school, and raise their families. They are felt where people live, in states, and in countries. Likewise, fragmentation is fracturing the world we live in, and being experienced at the global level, as it impacts the global order and the efficacy of international institutions.

The world feeling “smaller” is not inherently a bad thing. Cultivating an understanding of why social, political, and economic outcomes occur is a precondition for approaching solutions to complex global problems. Conversely, it is important to learn why certain processes have failed, and what those failures mean.