Politics as a science : a prolegomenon

SCHMITTER, Philippe C.; BLECHER, Marc

doi:10.4324/9781003032144

2021

Book

SCHMITTER, Philippe C.

; BLECHER, Marc

New York : Routledge, 2021, Conceptualising comparative politics ; 12

Cite

SCHMITTER, Philippe C., BLECHER, Marc, Politics as a science : a prolegomenon, New York : Routledge, 2021, Conceptualising comparative politics ; 12 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/68995

Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository

In Politics as a Science, two of the world’s leading authorities on comparative politics, Philippe C. Schmitter and Marc Blecher, provide a lively introduction to the concepts and framework to study and analyze politics. Written with dexterity, concision and clarity, this short text makes no claim to being scientific. It contains no disprovable hypotheses, no original collection of evidence and no search for patterns of association. Instead, Schmitter and Blecher keep the text broadly conceptual and theoretical to convey their vision of the sprawling subject of politics. They map the process in which researchers try to specify the goal of the trip, some of the landmarks likely to be encountered en route and the boundaries that will circumscribe the effort. Examples, implications and elaborations are included in footnotes throughout the book. Politics as a Science is an ideal introduction for anyone interested in, or studying, comparative politics.

Table of Contents:

-- Preface and Acknowledgments -- 1. The Subject Matter -- 1.1. The Core : power and politics -- 1.2. The Exercise of Power -- 2. The Foundations -- 2.1. The Concepts -- 2.2. The Agents -- 2.3. The Cleavages -- 2.4. The Motives -- 2.5. The Processes -- 2.6. The Mechanisms -- 2.7. The Temporalities -- 2.8. The Units -- 2.9. The Regimes -- 3. The Consequences -- 3.1. Order -- 3.2. Production and Distribution -- 3.3. Recognition and Respect -- 3.4. Externalities -- 3.5. Legitimacy -- 4. The Discipline -- 4.1. The Theoretic Trajectory -- 4.2. The Liberal Bias -- 4.3. The Methods -- 5. The Design Of Research -- 5.1. Choice of Topic -- 5.2. Conceptualization -- 5.3. Formation of Hypotheses -- 5.4. Selection of Cases -- 5.5. Proposal Writing -- 5.6. Operationalization of Variables -- 5.7. Measurement -- 5.8. Test for Association -- 5.9. Causal Inference -- 5.10. Evaluation of Results -- Conclusion -- 6. The Purpose -- 7. The Promise -- References -- Index

Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/68995

Full-text via DOI: 10.4324/9781003032144

ISBN: 9780367464691

Publisher: Routledge

Keyword(s): Political science Methodology

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