300458 Comparative Political Research (S) (SoSe 2023)

This course will familiarise students with the fundamentals of performing comparative research, introducing the main approaches and introducing exemplary research from important topical fields. Students will acquire the skills to evaluate the applied methodologies in comparative social science research, to recognise the intellectual tradition they belong to, and to design their own comparative research projects. The course is structured in three parts. First, we introduce the rationales of comparing in social science. Furthermore, we extensively discuss crucial research design and methodological issues in comparative research, such as the logic of theory testing, the processes of concept formation and data aggregation, and differences of so-called qualitative and quantitative research. Second, students will be exposed to the overarching theoretical paradigms in comparative research. Third, we will cover examples from some of the major topics in comparative social research, ranging from the study of democracy, to social movements, to political violence.