Comparative Politics
The field of Comparative Politics involves the study of politics across local, national, and cultural boundaries. Students are expected to become familiar with various ways in which scholars conceptualize and theorize to make sub-national and cross-national comparisons of phenomena such as political development, national integration, political institutions, electoral systems, elites and mass behavior, interest groups, political parties, and policy-making processes. Insightful questions lead us not only to amass illustrative case study data and aggregate comparative data, but they also guide us to understand the context and impact of political decisions. In addition, the student should become knowledgeable about the nature of the political system in modern democratic industrialized nations, the developing world, and transitional settings. The empirical study of comparative politics
Specific areas of interest in the field include:
- The comparison of political institutions and political economies across countries and across time.
- Elections, voting, and election administration
- Comparative political economy and development
- Authoritarianism and democratic backsliding
- Comparison of political behavior and ideologies across countries and across time
- Impacts of artificial intelligence and new technology on governance, law, and politics
- Mixed and multi-method approaches including statistical, experimental, computational methods, case-study, and comparative methods.
Research and Faculty
- Andy Baker, Professor
- Benjamin Broman, Assistant Professor
- Mollie Cohen, Assistant Professor
- Tara Grillos, Associate Professor
- James A. McCann, Professor
- Liana Eustacia Reyes, Assistant Professor
- Joan Timoneda, Assistant Professor
- Minh Trinh, Assistant Professor
- Dwayne Woods, Professor
- Eddie Yang, Assistant Professor
Degrees
- Bachelor of Arts | Undergraduate
- Master of Arts | Graduate
- Doctor of Philosophy | Graduate