Beyond Parochialism, Toward Generalizations and Comparisons: Comments on Jefferson’s "Understanding European Party Systems"

Abstract

Kurt Jefferson calls for the utilization in Eastern Europe of party system models developed in the western part of the Continent. By doing so, he highlights a fundamental tension that runs throughout the literature on political parties and, for that matter, much of comparative politics: the delicate balance between making generalizations through inductive reasoning and the pursuit of detailed knowledge by way of in-depth study of specific cases. Professor Jefferson squarely confronts this analytical balancing act. He thoughtfully envelops his focus on the Czechoslovak case within a stimulating proposal for one means through which to generalize about political parties. While engaged in microanalysis of a party system in a democratizing polity, his sensitivity for generalization takes form in his recommendation to apply western European models in analyzing eastern European party systems, even suggesting we should refer to "European politics" in lieu of the political-geographical prefixes of "west" and "east." Toward such ends, Jefferson illustratively applies Giovanni Sartori’s (1990) party systems framework to Czechoslovakia.