Introduction

Todd Landman & Neil Robinson

Introduction Comparative politics has firmly established itself as a significant, vibrant, and definitive tradition and field of inquiry in the discipline of political science. The field, at least as far as research and postgraduate teaching are concerned, has moved well beyond its early ‘public law’ phase of comparative institutionalism and its more parochial labelling as ‘anything that studies countries outside the United States’ (see, e.g. Valenzuela, 1988; Landman, 2000, 2003, 2008). It is now one that is at the centre of debates on normative and empirical theory (Lichbach and Zuckerman, 1997), quantitative and qualitative methodology (King et al., 1994; Brady and Collier, 2004; Gerring, 2007), and the ability for political science scholarship to have practical relevance to practitioners and policy makers across a range of significant issues areas in the contemporary world (e.g. Flyvbjerg, 2001; Schram and Caterino, 2006). The American Political Science Review (and now Perspectives on Politics ) ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.

• Buy The Book