This paper offers meta-reflections on the field of comparative politics, that is, the study of politics around the world through the comparison of different countries. It presents and elaborates a general framework for assessing social scientific knowledge that identifies four main products of...

The two cross-national indices with gender-differentiated data introduced by the UNDP in 1995, as well as several other such indices developed subsequently, are an important resource for researchers and policy makers interested in gender disparities. Yet questions remain regarding how these...

This paper presents several tests of the validity of data on corruption using the full range of data sets employed in cross-national corruption research. First, we show that different classes of indicators of corruption, a distinction based on who evaluates a country's level of corruption, rely...

This article contributes to ongoing debates about the direction of comparative politics through an analysis of new data on the scope, objectives, and methods of research in the field. The results of the analysis are as follows: Comparative politics is a rich and diverse field that cannot be...

In an effort to take stock of the claims put forth by advocates of game theory, this article offers an assessment that considers game theory both as a set of theoretical principles that extends rational choice theory to interdependent decision making and as a type of formal methodology. Some...

This chapter reviews the theoretical foundations of critical juncture research and, based on a consideration of how foundational issues should be addressed, suggests that some changes to the core ideas used in this research are needed. The aim of the chapter is to show how the critical juncture...

This symposium brings together ten essays that explore hypotheses about critical junctures, understood as major episodes of institutional innovation that generate an enduring legacy. Scholars routinely focus on episodes of innovation that occur in contrasting ways across cases, which in turn...

While the literature on democratization has devoted considerable attention to the concept of modes of transition, the attempts to explain the prospects of democratic consolidation as a consequence of the mode of transition have been inconclusive. Revisiting this debate, this article argues that...

The methodology of research design hinges on the choices made with regard to four core questions: How is the value of the independent variable(s) assigned? How are units selected? How many units are selected? And how are comparisons organized (i.e., whether temporally and/or spatially)? These...

This paper addresses the nexuses between democracy, understood in minimal procedural terms, and three key aspects of the state: the state as a political center with a monopoly of the use of violence over a population within a given territory, the state as a political center which rules over a...