Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Dedication......Page 9
Contents......Page 11
Contributors......Page 13
Preface and Acknowledgments......Page 17
Introduction......Page 19
The chapters......Page 20
The Messy Center: Big-Picture Pragmatism......Page 21
Pushing against the Mainstream: Culture and Constructivism......Page 23
Fortifying the Center: Research Paradigms and Causal Analysis......Page 25
Fortifying the Center: Linking Structure and Action and Exploring Causal Patterns......Page 28
The Future of the Center: Constructivism and Causality......Page 32
Final words......Page 34
Introduction......Page 36
Counterclaim: Comparative Politics as Literature and Art......Page 37
Origins of the present crisis of understanding......Page 38
The First Attempt to Creatively Deepen Variable Analysis Was the Search for Paradigms......Page 41
Discover a difficulty......Page 44
Discovery = Big Problems......Page 47
Discovery = Thorny Puzzles......Page 49
Discovery = Core Difficulty......Page 50
Explanation = Big Concepts......Page 53
Explanation = Mechanisms......Page 56
Explanation = Institutions......Page 58
Explanation = Middle-Range Causal Arguments......Page 61
Provide some evidence......Page 64
Evidence = Stylized Facts......Page 66
Evidence = Designs for Establishing Causality......Page 69
Evidence = Analytic Narratives......Page 72
Deadening Metaphysics......Page 74
Vitalizing Frictions......Page 77
Comparative comparativists: paradigmatic and pragmatic......Page 84
3 Advancing Explanation in Comparative Politics: Social Mechanisms, Endogenous Processes, and Empirical Rigor......Page 90
Explanations in comparative politics......Page 92
Explanations with social mechanisms......Page 93
From optimization and selfishness to bounded rationality, heuristics, and social learning......Page 96
From exogenous to endogenous preferences and identities......Page 97
Social learning as an instrumental choice and as a social process......Page 99
Social mechanisms in recent research in comparative politics: partisanship and voting......Page 100
Social mechanisms in recent research in comparative politics: political violence......Page 101
Applying social mechanisms in empirical analysis......Page 104
An application to partisanship......Page 105
An application to political violence......Page 107
Social mechanisms and rigorous empirical analysis in alternative modes of explanation in comparative politics......Page 109
Conclusions and implications......Page 112
4 Strong Theory, Complex History: Structure and Configuration in Comparative Politics Revisited......Page 114
I......Page 116
II......Page 119
III......Page 123
IV......Page 128
5 Reconsiderations of Rational Choice in Comparative and Historical Analysis......Page 135
A methodologial shift......Page 137
Influences......Page 143
Comparative and Historical Rational Choice......Page 145
Reconsidering the Behavioral Assumption......Page 148
Power......Page 150
Conclusion......Page 151
Introduction......Page 152
Culture and cultural analyses of politics......Page 155
The centrality of psychocultural narratives and interpretations in cultural analyses of politics......Page 160
Psychocultural Narratives and Interpretations......Page 161
Cultural Expressions and Enactments......Page 164
Interpretations and Narratives as Methodological Tools......Page 166
Two Examples......Page 168
Critique of cultural analyses of politics......Page 170
Unit-of-Analysis Issues......Page 171
Within-Culture Variation Can Be Substantial......Page 172
Distinguishing Culture from Other Concepts......Page 173
Culture and Change......Page 174
Mechanisms Underlying Cultural Explanations......Page 175
Cultural Explanations Are \"Just-So\" Stories and Not Causal Accounts......Page 176
Conclusion: Linking culture to choice and institutions......Page 177
Introduction......Page 180
The difficulty in comparing states......Page 182
The Image of the State: The Two Faces of Domination and Allegiance......Page 183
The Practices of the State: The Growing Diversity of States in the Twentieth Century......Page 186
New approaches to the comparative study of states......Page 194
Political Trajectories......Page 197
Integrated Comparative Analysis......Page 201
Toward a multilayered, multiparadigm analysis of states......Page 205
Introduction - and a few caveats......Page 211
Political economy: what it was and how it (unexpectedly) came about......Page 212
The (Unexpected) Rebirth of Political Economy......Page 213
Concepts and Questions......Page 214
Interest-Based Political Economy: Origins......Page 216
Constructivist Political Economy: Origins......Page 217
Trade, Mobility, and Politics......Page 219
Assets, Skills, and Compensation......Page 220
Interest-Based Theories: Strengths and Weaknesses......Page 222
Chosen Structures That Structure Choices?......Page 223
Non-Game-Theoretic Extensions: The Developmental State Literature......Page 225
Institutionalist political economy: strengths and weaknesses......Page 227
Beyond coalitions and institutions: ideational political economy......Page 228
Ideas as Resources and Conventions......Page 229
Ideas as Governance Technologies......Page 231
Ideational Political Economy: Strengths and Weaknesses......Page 233
The Link Not Made? Rational Choice Theory and Political Economy......Page 234
Conclusions: comparing approaches and the question of boundaries......Page 236
9 The Global Context of Comparative Politics......Page 238
Structure......Page 241
Rationality......Page 245
Culture......Page 247
Hybrids (\"Paradigm Busters\")......Page 248
Domestic-international linkages and the comparative politics of east asia and the middle east......Page 250
Structural Sources......Page 253
Rational Sources......Page 258
Culture......Page 261
Structural Consequences......Page 266
Rationality......Page 269
Culture......Page 273
Conclusions......Page 276
10 Comparative Perspectives on Contentious Politics......Page 278
Interactions, Claims, and Governments......Page 279
Proximate Effects......Page 280
Political Opportunity Structures......Page 281
Performances and Repertoires......Page 282
The Political Process Approach......Page 284
Skocpol on Revolutions......Page 285
Rational Choice and Resource Mobilization......Page 286
McCarthy and Zald Focus on Social Movement Organizations......Page 287
The Construction of Contention......Page 288
Scott Takes Constructivism South......Page 289
Searches for Synthesis......Page 290
Mechanisms and processes of contention......Page 291
Mobilization: A Cluster of Mechanisms......Page 293
Demobilization: A Different Cluster of Mechanisms......Page 294
Social Movements......Page 295
Capacity and Contention......Page 296
Special-Purpose Associations......Page 297
Lethal Conflicts and Civil Wars......Page 298
Contentious politics and comparative politics......Page 299
Transitions between Forms of Contention......Page 300
Transnational Contention and Global Social Movements......Page 301
Open questions in the study of contentious politics......Page 302
Episodes versus Discrete Forms of Conflict......Page 303
The Methodological Conundrum......Page 304
Naturalistic Experiments......Page 305
Nonmainstream Quantitative Analysis......Page 306
Where next?......Page 307
Introduction and overview......Page 309
Patterns of interdependence in the study of comparative politics......Page 311
Levels of meaning in the study of democratic politics......Page 312
Ecological fallacies, individualistic fallacies, and the problem of interdependence......Page 314
Comparative politics as a general case of multilevel analysis......Page 316
Data problems and exemplary efforts......Page 318
Social networks as the connecting tissue between individuals and aggregates......Page 319
Implications for comparative analysis......Page 321
The micro-macro divide in political capacity......Page 323
Implications for alternative visions of politics......Page 324
Cultural Theories......Page 325
Structural Theories......Page 326
Rational Actor Theories......Page 327
A comparative vision of democratic politics and the vote: a reprise......Page 329
Conclusion: the importance of specific patterns of social relations......Page 330
Mixed ancestry: origins of research on comparative mass politics......Page 332
The pieces of the puzzle: multilevel models in comparative research on mass politics......Page 336
Some examples: representational structures and voter behavior......Page 338
The ties that could bind: nested citizens and structuralists, rationalists, and culturalists......Page 341
Some last words: looking for a grand theory of multilevel politics?......Page 348
13 Back to the Future: Endogenous Institutions and Comparative Politics......Page 351
Causal mechanisms......Page 354
Empirical attempts to illuminate mechanisms......Page 356
The endogeneity problem......Page 358
Econometric Analysis......Page 360
Analytical History......Page 363
Natural Experiments......Page 370
Field Experiments......Page 371
Conclusions......Page 372
14 The Comparative Political Economy of the Welfare State......Page 376
The structural determinants of social spending: the role of economic development......Page 378
Openness......Page 380
The Systematic Clustering of Policies: Accounting for Cross-National Differences among Welfare State Regimes......Page 381
Welfare Regimes in Developing Countries......Page 386
Stability and change in social policies......Page 389
Conclusion......Page 392
15 Making Causal Claims about the Effect of \"Ethnicity\"......Page 394
The properties of ethnic identity assumed by causal claims about ethnic identity......Page 399
Why making reasonable causal claims about the effect of ethnic identity requires a definition......Page 402
What is an ethnic identity?......Page 403
Justification......Page 407
Comparison with other definitions......Page 411
Constrained Change......Page 419
Visibility......Page 421
The weak presumption that ethnicity matters in our causal claims......Page 424
Disaggregating Ethnicity......Page 426
Making Claims Based on Intrinsic Properties......Page 427
Making Claims about Distributions, Not Dichotomies......Page 428
References......Page 431
Author Index......Page 499
Subject Index......Page 512