Review article
THE PROBLEMS OF RECENT COMPARATIVE POLITICS SCHOLARSHIP IN GERMANY
Mirjana Kasapović
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The first part of the article is a review of contemporary comparative politics research in Germany. The conclusion of the first part is that serious attempts to overcome the structural weaknesses of this political science sub discipline are made only from the 1990’s on. The biggest credit for it goes to the research on political and social transformation that has also contributed substantially to the development of regional comparative studies. In the second part, the author shows both the structural weaknesses and the new positive developments by reviewing five recently published comparative studies. The most important among the weaknesses is the “lockedness” into the traditional framework of studying systems of government, as well as a lack of methodological consciousness, theoretical eclecticism, strong descriptive normativism and a bias in the selection of study cases.
Keywords
comparative politics; Germany; methodological weaknesses; theoretical eclecticism; descriptive normativism; selection bias
Hrčak ID:
29025
URI
Publication date:
18.11.2008.
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