Comparative Politics

Comparative Rationality, Culture, and Structure examines the major research traditions in comparative politics, assessing knowledge, advancing theory, and in the end seeking to direct research in the coming years. It begins by examining the three research schools that guide comparative rational choice theory, culturalist analysis, and structuralist approaches. Margaret Levi, Marc Howard Ross, and Ira Katznelson offer briefs for each of the schools, presenting core principles, variations within each approach, and fresh combinations. A second set of authors then applies the research traditions to established fields of scholarship. Samuel H. Barnes examines work on mass politics, Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly synthesize studies of social movements and revolutions, Peter A. Hall contrasts new research on the political economy of established democracies, and Joel S. Migdal offers a new approach to studies of the state. The concluding section contains essays by Mark I. Lichbach and Alan S. Zuckerman, returning the focus to the theme of advanced theory in comparative politics. Lichbach offers a critical evaluation that draws on the schools' theoretical sources and Zuckerman calls for a reformulation of the standards for explanation in comparative politics as a way to advance theory.