Comparative Political Studies Research Articles

Student-led replication studies in comparative politics: new findings by fresh eyes?

This research note presents two replication studies that were conducted during a research-oriented course at Heidelberg University in summer 2022. The first study, initially conducted by Korell, replicates the findings from Albert’s original contribution on rebel governance. Albert conducted an explorative study in analyzing the associations between rebel governance and rebel military capacity. Our replication study indicates support for Albert’s argument of the relevance of disaggregating rebel governance, while we also show that the original findings are mainly driven by Albert’s explorative model specifications. The second study, initially conducted by Reinecke, tests the robustness of Levin et al.’s study on the democratic peacekeeping hypothesis and expands upon the original study by directly testing the “selectorate-theoretic causal mechanism” for the democratic peacekeeping hypothesis. Overall, the replication studies presented in this research note provide interesting findings regarding empirical conflict studies and contribute to ongoing efforts to promote replication initiatives in the education of future political scientists.

Realism, Mechanism, Effect, and Comparative Contentious Politics

Charles Tilly was instrumental in launching the comparative study of contentious politics through key contributions delineating and defining the subject matter. But his input is epistemological as well as theoretical and substantive. What characterizes his epistemology is a realist mechanistic explanation rendering mechanisms tools of both explanation and comparison. Employing the realist perspective, this article examines Tilly’s focus on mechanisms and some of the ensuing challenges for comparative contentious politics. It argues that mechanisms can explain confidently the emergence of contention in given episodes and can enable the comparison of emergence across episodes but cannot generalize easily about them. This tension between the particular and the general characterizes also the task of conceptualization because the key concepts in this field of study refer to processes. What ameliorates this tension is to conceptually decouple the effect produced in mechanism operation from the modality of such operation and to assign epistemological weight to the effect. This move is discussed with reference to distinctions among mechanisms, to distinctions among concatenations of mechanisms, and to potentiality.

The impact of internal legislative determinants on the participation of parties in the Jordanian political system (1946-2020): a comparative political historical study

هدفت هذه الدّراسة إلى التَّعرف إلى المحدّدات الدّاخليّة (التّشريعيّة) في النّظام السّياسيّ الأردنيّ المؤثّرة في مشاركة الأحزاب، وذلك خلال الفترة (1946-2020) م، واستخدمت الدّراسة ثلاثة مناهج كأسلوب للدّراسة وهي: أوّلًا: المنهج التاريخي، ثانيًا: المنهج الوصفي التحليلي، ثالثًا: المنهج المقارن. وتوصلت الدّراسة إلى عدد من النتائج من أهمّها: أنّ المحدّدات الدّاخليّة (التّشريعيّة) أثّرت بشكل كبير في مشاركة الأحزاب في النّظام السّياسيّ الأردنيّ؛ بحيث اختلف كلّ محدّد عن المحدّد الآخر في درجة التأثير، كما وضعت الدّراسة عددًا من التّوصيات وهي: أوّلًا: تعديل نصّ الدّستور الأردنيّ لعام 1952م وأنّ يكرّس فيه موادّ أكثر للأحزاب السّياسيّة في مشاركتها في النّظام السّياسيّ الأردنيّ، سواء خلال ذكر حق مشاركة الأحزاب في الانتخابات، أو حقها في تشكيل حكومة حزبيّة (ائتلافية)، ثانيًا: تعديل قانون الأحزاب، وأنّ يكرّس فيه شرط تمثيل عدد من الأعضاء من نسبة معيّنة من المحافظات الأردنيّة؛ أي الرّجوع إلى نصّ قانون الأحزاب لعام 2012م حول ذلك الشّرط، حتى لا تكثر الأحزاب عمّا هو واقعي، وأنّْ لا يصبح تأسيس الأحزاب هوايةً، أو من أجل دعم مالي، ثالثًا: تعديل قانون الانتخاب، وأنّْ يخصص فيه عدد معيّن للأحزاب السّياسيّة؛ الأمر الذي سوف يساعدها أكثر في الدخول إلى المنافسة لتشكيل الحكومات فيما بعد.    الكلمات المفتاحيّة: المحدّدات الدّاخليّة (التّشريعيّة)، مشاركة الأحزاب، النّظام السّياسيّ الأردنيّ، مجلس النّوّاب.

Attitude of Russians towards immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021)

The objective of the author was to identify the presence, nature and factors of changes in the attitude of Russians towards immigrants during the coronavirus pandemic. It was revealed that the pandemic exacerbated the problems of natural population decline, and migration flows decreased, thereby reducing the compensation for natural decline by the influx of immigrants. On the one hand, this could increase the negative attitude of the host society towards immigrants, exacerbating the negative consequences of the coronavirus for society. On the other hand, the reduced “contact” with immigrants could switch the perception from immigrants to more acute problems, thereby making the attitude more neutral. For the empirical basis of the analysis the data of the European Social Survey for 2018 were used (for comparison with the pre-pandemic level of attitudes towards immigrants), as well as data from the Department for Comparative Political Studies of the Federal Scientific Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FCTAS RAS) for 2020–2021. The results of the analysis demonstrated that the assessment of the changes brought by immigrants to the economy, culture and everyday life of the country remains predominantly negative among Russians. The assessment of the consequences for the economy became more neutral during the study period, the perception of the consequences for the daily life of the country practically did not change, but the assessment of the consequences for culture became more negative. The regression analysis showed that the predictors of the negative attitude of Russians towards immigrants during the pandemic were: the perception of the acuteness of the problems of interethnic relations and the influx of visitors, the problem of increasing unemployment and the education of youth and adolescents, violation of the norms of public behaviour, as well as tension between men and women, the type of settlement (the larger it is, the more negative the attitude). Positive predictors turned out to be the level of institutional trust, age (the younger, the better the attitude), as well as awareness of the severity of the problem of population decline and low fertility in Russia.

Идентичность в условиях трансформации миропорядка: дискурсы и нарративы

A roundtable titled ‘Identity in the Time of World Order Transformation: Discourses and Narratives’ was held on the 2nd of December 2023, at the Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. It was a part of the All-Russian conference with international participation ‘Political Science in a Changing World: New Practices and Theoretical Research’ organized by the Russian Political Science Association (RPSA). At RPSA, the event was arranged by the Research Committee on political identity. The roundtable moderator was Semenenko I.S., Corresponding Member of the RAS, Doct. Sci. (Polit. Sci.), Head of Centre for Comparative Socioeconomic and Political Studies, Deputy Director for Scientific Work of IMEMO, RAS, RPSA Research Committee on political identity coordinator, supervisor of Identity Research Network; the co-moderator was Fadeeva L.A., Doct. Sci. (Polit. Sci.), Professor, Department of Political Science, Perm State University. The key trends, problems and achievements regarding identity studies in Russia and abroad, new discourses and narratives in political science and public policy, especially ones relevant to Russia, were analyzed. The discussion focused on the problems of political identity and identity politics in terms of a forming polycentric world, identity dimension of archaization discourses, neotraditionalism, Balkanization, manifesting identity conflicts, identity securitization and ethnopolitical conflicts. The speakers were as follows: Semenenko I.S.; Fadeeva L.A.; staff members of Sector for Analysis of Political Change and Identity, Department for Comparative Political Studies, Centre for Comparative Socioeconomic and Political Studies, IMEMO – Cand. Sci. (Chem.), Leading Researcher Lapkin V.V, Doct. Sci. (Philos.), Senior Researcher Kamkin A.K., Cand. Sci. (Polit. Sci.), Researcher Popadeva T.I., Junior Researcher Khaynatskaya T.I.; staff of Sector for International Organizations and Global Political Governance, Department for International Political Problems, IMEMO – Doct. Sci. (Polit.), Head of the Sector Prokhorenko I.L., Senior Research Assistant Shpak M.A.; staff of Department of Public Policy and Public Administration, Kuban State University (Krasnodar) – Doct. Sci. (Philos.), Professor Morozova E.V., Cand. Sci. (Polit. Sci.), Associate Professor Bashmakov I.S.; Kalashnikova S.K., postgraduate student St Petersburg University, Junior Researher, Center for Science, Education and Information Programs, INION RAN; Pogodina M.Ya., Research Assistant, Faculty of Political Science, St Petersburg University, Junior Researher, Center for Science, Education and Information Programs, INION RAN; Romanova A.H., Doct. Sci. (Philos.), Director of Institute for Research on the Problems of the South of Russia and the Caspian Sea, Astrakhan State University named after V.N. Tatishchev (Astrakhan); Sagitova L.V., Doct. Sci. (Polit. Sci.), Leading Researcher, Department of Ethnology, Sh. Marjani Institute of History, Tatarstan Academy of Sciences (Kazan); Sargsyan O.L., Cand. Sci. (Philos.), Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Political Science, Institute of Law and Politics, Russian-Armenian University (the Republic of Armenia, Yerevan). The review of the roundtable materials was compiled by Prokhorenko I.L., Doct. Sci. (Polit.), Head of the Sector for International Organizations and Global Political Governance, Department for International Political Problems, IMEMO (irinapr@imemo.ru, ORCID: 0000-0002-8090-7934).

Review of a Region of Regimes: Prosperity and Plunder in the Asia-Pacific (Cornell Studies in Political Economy) by T. J. Pempel

A Region of Regimes is an ambitious book, which seeks to provide an overarching analysis of the East Asian economic and institutional development. It examines the political economies of ten varied countries, relates them to the regional order, and covers a time span of 75 years from the end of World War Two through the Trump presidency. I expect that it will leave every reader pondering its arguments for a long time. The core of the book is an examination of regime types among the countries of Northeast and Southeast Asia. At the country level, Pempel defines ‘regimes’ as a characterization of ‘the interactions among… common political, socioeconomic, and international properties.’ (p. 2). He builds on extended traditions in the study of comparative politics, many of which he has helped to define, including theorizing on the developmental state, one-party-dominant democracies, and corporatism. He offers three main categories of regime in the region: ‘Developmental’ (Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan), ‘Ersatz Developmental’ (Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand), and ‘Rapacious Regimes’ (the Philippines, North Korea, and Myanmar). He also devotes a chapter to China, which he categorizes as a ‘Composite’ regime that has characteristics that overlap with each of his ideal-types. To facilitate comparison among the regime types, each chapter on domestic regimes is broken down into analyses of state institutions, socioeconomic forces, and external forces, which in turn link to distinctive economic policy paradigms. He closes with a chapter on the regional order.

Transitions to nowhere: Western teleology and regime-type classification

Comparative Political Communication studies often take the same basic regime-type Stage of Democracy Development (SDD) classification as a basis for analysis. In this model, societies can fall into three basic categories: (1) established democracies; (2) transitional democracies; or (3) authoritarian regimes. This article presents a critique of the SDD model. First, it enshrines ethnocentric prejudices as a basis of global comparison in political communication research. It also lacks analytical consistency and scholars using these categories do not feel compelled to justify their choices. Not rarely, they outsource the task of classifying societies to non-scholarly institutions. This makes the model vulnerable to institutional political bias. Finally, the SDD model—which originated in the time of the US global hegemony—is becoming growingly obsolete, in a time when the global order evolves toward a more multipolar structure, and western democracies (the US, in particular) experience a major crisis.

Iconic 21st Century Activist "T-Shirt and Tote-Bag" Combination Is Hard to Miss These Days!

Iconic 21st Century Activist "T-Shirt and Tote-Bag" Combination Is Hard to Miss These Days!

한국에서 비교정치 연구의 변화와 발전 분석(1955-2020): 연구자를 중심으로

This article analyzes the change and development of comparative political studies in Korea from 1955 to 2020. The study analyzes 6,753 research articles published in 277 academic journals. Firstly, the number of articles was fairly low at 547 and the number of researchers was 327 during the period from 1955 to 1980.
 Then it increased to 1,965 and 1,084 during the period from 1981 to 2000. It has now increased immensely to 4,241 and 1,789 from 2001 to 2020. Secondly, when we divide the research period by decade, the most productive researcher published 6 articles during the 1950 60s and 8 articles during the 1970s. The numbers were 8 articles during the 1980s and 9 articles during the 1990s.
 Remarkably, this number has increased up to 37 articles during the 2000s and 28 articles during the 2010s. Thirdly, when we investigate whether a productive researcher publishes a numerous number of articles consecutively over two decades, 36.6% of productive researchers during the 1950 60s continuously published a similar number of articles in the 1970s The percentages were 25% in the 1980s, 12.73% in the 1990s, and 20.75% in the 2000s. This percentage has increased incredibly to 45% during the 2010s. In conclusion, comparative political studies in Korea expanded in the number of articles and researchers during the 1980s and has optimistically developed and matured into higher quantity research since 2000s.

Fragmentation of Political Authority and Bureaucratic Entrepreneurship: Explaining Instances of Minority Accommodation in Israel and Estonia

Why do some ethnic nation-states committed to preferential treatment of the dominant nation choose to accommodate their ethnic minorities in some realms? I argue that power struggles between elected and non-elected officials account for the variation in the treatment of ethnic minorities. Fragmentation of authority creates opportunities for entrepreneurial bureaucrats to initiate policy changes and lead to unanticipated outcomes. Drawing on nationalism studies in comparative politics and principal-agent scholarship in public administration, this article outlines a theoretical framework focused on domestic factors accounting for variation in state policies toward minorities in a novel way. I apply this framework to education policy in Israel and Estonia vis-à-vis the Palestinian Arab and Russian-speaking minorities. This article illuminates an empirical puzzle of minority accommodation under nationalist governments and explains the conditions under which it occurs, offering generalizable theoretical expectations for similar contexts.

Comprehensive law-based governance in China? Legislating authoritarianism in the Xi Jinping era

ABSTRACT The survival of authoritarianism has become an important issue in comparative political studies in recent years. Apart from power sharing within the ruling group and the relationship between the state and society, the focus is also on how authoritarian regimes consolidate their power through “rule by law.” By analyzing and comparing various legislative data in China, this study finds that the CCP did become more proactive in its legislation during the Xi period. There was a rapid increase in the number of bills, faster deliberation, and a shift in the major drafting authorities from the former State Council to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and specific party-state institutions. In this regard, comprehensive law-based governance strengthens rule by law rather than the rule of law. A revision of the Organic Law of the NPC [《人大組織法》, Renda Zuzhi Fa] in 2021 increased the power of the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), and legislation was made more flexible and efficient. The law also strengthened the consolidation of the legislating authoritarian regime.

How Does the Weak Strongman Stay in Power? Exposing the Roots of Vladimir Putin's Rule in Russia

How Does the Weak Strongman Stay in Power?Exposing the Roots of Vladimir Putin's Rule in Russia Aleksandar Matovski (bio) Conventional wisdom holds that populations support autocrats only because they are coerced, bribed, or brainwashed into obedience. Driven by this perception, much of the public discourse and analysis of contemporary dictatorships ignores the role of societies in the rise and operation of these regimes. Similarly, many of the checks on authoritarian power are downplayed. Elections are assumed to be so reliably manipulated, protest and opposition so effectively quashed, and all other institutions and elites so thoroughly co-opted that they do not meaningfully shape politics in these countries. Unsurprisingly, most of the ink is spilled on the seemingly all-powerful puppet masters. Dictators' personalities, obsessions, and purported worldviews are obsessively scrutinized as the ultimate resource on politics in these regimes. These accounts of court intrigue and leadership produce gripping narratives. But their pervasiveness creates an illusion that autocrats operate with very few constraints. They also make us lose sight of the fact that dictators are products of the circumstances in which they rule at least as much as they create them. Timothy Frye's Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin's Russia is thus an exceptionally timely and prescient treatise, addressing these pathologies in the study of one of the most consequential present-day dictatorships: Russia under Vladimir Putin. Weak Strongman is not based on new research by the author; instead, the book is an exceedingly rare species: an effort to distill the cumulative wisdom of political science research on the Russian and other autocracies, and in a way that makes it widely accessible beyond narrow scholarly circles. The book's core mission—and achievement—is to bridge the gap between the scholarship on Putinism and similar regimes and how these are understood in policy circles and by the public. In this sense, Weak Strongman tries to reverse a frustrating trend. Over the two decades of [End Page 182] Putin's rule, academic research on Russian politics has advanced by leaps and bounds to become more nuanced, sophisticated, and grounded in "hard" empirical evidence than ever before. But at the same time, it has become more and more disconnected from policymaking and the public discourse on Russia, which have often been dominated by superficial analysis and political polarization. Frye centers Weak Strongman on the two most important misconceptions that have emerged in this context. The first is that Vladimir Putin is the be-all and end-all of Russian politics, that Russia's autocracy is a reflection of his will, and everything important that happens in Russia is part of his design. The second is that Putin's rule is an exceptional, inimitable product of Russia's circumstances and its predisposition toward authoritarianism. Weak Strongman demonstrates that the opposite is true on both accounts. Putinism is a far weaker (as the book's title implies) and more circumscribed dictatorship than is generally assumed. And for the most part, it is also a fairly typical sort of autocracy. Frye combines insights from the study of Russian and comparative politics to show that Putin rose to power in the same way as other strongmen—not as part of any unique or grand design but by taking advantage of his country's dysfunction and the weakness of the alternatives. And his rule has been fraught with many of the same limitations and metastasizing pathologies as any "standard-issue" personalist dictatorship. Putinism, in Frye's rendering, is a fragile balancing act in which the strongman must rely on elite networks that play by their own rules and could ultimately depose him. Putin must tolerate the systemic corruption that keeps these self-serving elites in check but also ruins the economy and increases the odds of a popular rebellion. Repression, propaganda, and electoral fraud are blunt tools for controlling Russia's opposition, and their use may backfire amid rising popular discontent. Putin's assertive foreign policy has become an increasingly counterproductive strategy to bolster the regime's legitimacy. And sitting on top of this decaying structure, the aging strongman cannot safely retire, making leadership succession a potentially fatal flaw of Russia's...

The EU and European Countries’ Indo-Pacific Strategies: Security and Nuclear Factor

The Indo-Pacific region concept, having a significant place in the U.S. as well as their Asia-Pacific allies’ official discourse in the latest decades, is also penetrating the diplomatic terminology of both the EU and separate European nations. This paper features a review of how the Indo-Pacific strategies are designed as exemplified by the corresponding documents adopted by the said international organisation and some of its member states (including the former ones, such as the UK), particularly in the security realm and nuclear non-proliferation, given the importance of these factors for strategic stability in the global and regional dimensions. In terms of methodology, the article employs some elements of discourse analysis, content analysis, comparative political studies, and prognostic methods; the sources are represented by the EU and European countries’ official documents, as well as speeches made by politicians. Thanks to analysing the states’ strategies, main trends, which are also reflected in the common EU strategy, are singled out. The author draws a conclusion that the deterioration of the Ukrainian crisis will limit the opportunities for further development of the interregional ties between Europe and Asia.

Listwise Deletion in High Dimensions

AbstractWe consider the properties of listwise deletion when both n and the number of variables grow large. We show that when (i) all data have some idiosyncratic missingness and (ii) the number of variables grows superlogarithmically in n, then, for large n, listwise deletion will drop all rows with probability 1. Using two canonical datasets from the study of comparative politics and international relations, we provide numerical illustration that these problems may emerge in real-world settings. These results suggest that, in practice, using listwise deletion may mean using few of the variables available to the researcher.

Energizing Comparative Environmental Politics and Comparative Political Economy

Energizing Comparative Environmental Politics and Comparative Political Economy

The declining appeal of mega-events in entrepreneurial cities: From Los Angeles 1984 to Los Angeles 2028

Mega-events appear to be losing their appeal as tools for urban development. Events have long been funded by local governments on the promise that they can act as a catalyst for economic growth. But constituents and leaders are questioning that approach, disrupting the relationship between municipalities and global sports institutions. These political shifts are analyzed with a comparative study of Olympic planning and urban politics in American cities, from the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics to present-day preparations for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics (during this period, Olympic planning also occurred in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Salt Lake City). The paper examines the development, mobility, and contestation of an “LA model” of mega-event planning, which emphasizes municipal fiscal conservativism, and which has provided a political rationale for city leaders to invest in mega-events. The travels of the model illustrate the evolving role of mega-events in the political economy of entrepreneurial cities.

Planned relocation: An unusual case for developed countries

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that anywhere between 250 million to 1 billion people will undertake some form of human mobility by 2050 due to climate change. Planned relocation is an important adaptive tool for governments and communities around the world dealing with human mobility due to climate change. The literature shows that planned relocations allow governments to be proactive to avoid a crisis resulting from the impacts of climate change. However, in terms of governance and policy, both at the international and national levels, a lot has been written about migration and displacement, but not enough focus is given to planned relocation. The paper, using the comparative method and qualitative analysis, will examine cases of relocation identified from different countries around the world to create a database of case studies. The paper analyses 12 cases of planned relocation which constitutes a medium-N study in comparative politics. The paper seeks to answer two main questions, namely, (a) What lessons can be learnt from cases of planned relocation due to slow-onset climate change? and (b) Can theory of agenda-setting and salience of issues explain why some cases of planned relocation happened more efficiently compared to others? Analysis reveals that lack of governance frameworks and planning are the major challenges faced by communities in both developing and developed countries choosing planned relocations. Secondly, a comparison of two cases of planned relocation, shows that the salience of the issue of planned relocation might explain how some communities fared better.

Central Asia: from dark matter to a dark curtain?

ABSTRACT This article answers the question of why Central Asia studies has not contributed more fully to the study of comparative politics since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It argues that during the Soviet period, Central Asia remained a dark matter to Western scholars specializing in Sovietology and who lacked access to the region. Although in the 1990s Western academics saw the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’, expecting Central Asia to join the liberal world order, these hopes declined after the 2000s when not only the transition paradigm failed, but also because a consolidated form of authoritarianism closed access to the field. In conclusion, this article offers the most promising fields for the development of the study of comparative politics across and inside Central Asia.

Research Agenda for Political Science in China in an Era of Great Change

The world order is undergoing tumultuous changes amid the Sino–US trade war and a global pandemic. During these epochal times for political science, The American school of social sciences needs an intellectual revolution and a repositioning of the research agenda for political science. Comparative political studies must shift their focus from their traditional role of comparison of political institutions to that of state governance models, as the former can no longer advance new knowledge in political science while the latter represents a greater challenge for such studies. Likewise, studies of international relations in the traditional sense should take a step further and explore studies of world politics, i.e., studies of international relations and world order as shaped by institutional changes triggered by political trends within certain countries. The research approach of historical political science is indispensable, whether it is comparison of state governance models or of world politics.

The EU’s initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic: disintegration or ‘failing forward’?

ABSTRACT This article examines the European Union’s initial response (March–July 2020) to the multifaceted crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It does so on the basis of two competing hypotheses in relation to what this response indicates about the process of integration. The first is drawn from the literature on ‘disintegration’ while the second is based on the recent argument [Jones, E., Kelemen, R. D., & Meunier, S. (2016). Failing forward? The Euro crisis and the incomplete nature of European Integration. Comparative Political Studies, 49(7), 1010–1034. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414015617966] that the EU has been ‘failing forward’ in reaction to the crises that it has been facing for more than a decade. It is argued that while the first hypothesis ought to be rejected, there is evidence indicating that the EU has responded much more in line with the ‘failing forward’ thesis. Indeed it is argued that there is (in the EU’s initial response) more evidence of the latter (forward) than the former (failing).