What are comparative politics and the comparative method of developing arguments?
What will be an ideal response?
Comparative politics is the systematic search for answers to political questions about how people around the world make and contest authoritative public choices. In contrast to a course in international relations, comparative politics tends to focus on politics within different countries—both in terms of their similarities and their differences—while international relations concentrate on the interactions between countries. A comparative approach to understanding politics around the world asks questions about unexpected events or patterns of events—such as why some countries are rich while other similar countries remain poor, or why conflict plagues some societies while other similar societies remain peaceful. A comparative approach also generates hypotheses that offer potential explanations for such puzzling patterns, and tests those hypotheses against evidence we gather from the real world to develop arguments using what we call the comparative method. The comparative method involves comparing and contrasting cases (a set of countries, for example) that share attributes or characteristics but differ on the outcome being explored—or that have a variety of attributes but experience the same outcome. The goal of comparing countries in this way is to generate convincing answers to our questions about what politics is all about.
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The position of attorney general in Texas is least understood because the state's chief litigant has little to do with criminal prosecution. Which of the following statements, if true, supports this statement?
a. The Texas attorney general can only initiate criminal proceedings. b. The Texas attorney general cannot intervene in local prosecutions on his or her own initiative. c. The Texas attorney general needs permission from the senate to carry out day-to-day activities. d. The Texas attorney general is appointed by the governor.
The two most powerful committees in Congress are the House of Representatives
a. Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. b. International Relations Committee and the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. c. International Relations Committee and the Senate Finance Committee d. Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.
Moving economic development programs from state agencies and into private organizations is one of the key characteristics of which approach to economic development?
a. First wave b. Second wave c. Third wave d. Fourth wave
The "constructive vote of no confidence" in Germany's Basic Law means that the legislature a. cannot vote down a government policy proposal without approving an alternative. b. cannot vote a government out of office unless it votes in a new government to replace it. c. cannot vote down policy goals proposed by the government; it can only vote down specific methods ofreaching those goals
d. can delay legislation until the government considers alternatives proposed by the legislature. e. can amend previously passed legislation to improve the way policy goals are achieved.