Freeman, Richard and Eric Mangez. "For a (self-)critical comparison". Critical Policy Studies, Vol.7, No.2 (2013): 198-206.

Freeman, Richard and Eric Mangez. "For a (self-)critical comparison". Critical Policy Studies, Vol.7, No.2 (2013): 198-206.

• In recent years, policy making has become a much more open field, with politicians and specialists consuming comparative political research and creating policy based on the examples of other states. This weakens the divisions necessary for comparative work, as countries are influencing and being influenced by one another (199).
• In light of this increased involvement of government in comparison, some scholars have begun engaging in meta-comparison, recognizing the creation of categories for comparison as a performative act, and comparing how governments set up these comparisons (199-200).
• Because politicians and policy-makers have begun using comparative work in their formulation of policies and creation of standards for the success of those policies, conducting comparisons now influences the changes that will occur in the society being studied (200).
• The authors present a study, which is likely not generalizable, showing that collaboration between colleagues in the same field is much more common that between colleague studying the same country. Health professionals studying Italy are more likely to have connections with health professionals studying elsewhere than scholars looking at Italian politics (203).