Rose, Richard and W. J. M. Mackenzie. "Comparing Forms of Comparative Analysis". Political Studies, Vol.39, No.3 (1991): 446-462.

Rose, Richard and W. J. M. Mackenzie. "Comparing Forms of Comparative Analysis". Political Studies, Vol.39, No.3 (1991): 446-462.

• The element that makes a study comparative politics is the presence of concepts, which allow the results of one study to have implication in other places were concepts are relevant. Multinational studies are comparative because they focus on concepts applicable across countries, whereas case studies can be comparative if they contain concepts which can be applied to other contexts (447).
• In this essay, 'concepts' is used to refer to the categories created by political scientists. In this sense, the concept of democracy or parliamentarianism is necessary for the categorization of regimes which makes up the basis of comparison in political science (447-448).
• Political scientists are usually bad at including comparisons in their work. Most work is either overly particular, stressing the uniqueness of countries and omitting comparisons or similar concepts, or universalist, unreasonably assuming that findings from one country will automatically apply everywhere (449-450).
• Political scientists also sometimes ignore reality all together and create theories based on abstractions. Economists are the worst in this regard, constructing unreal situations abstracted from rational choice theory. Some politics research is the same, writing entirely in abstractions that aren't applicable to actual policy (452).
• There is a distinct give-and-take relationship in most work between the number of cases and the detail of the analysis. Case studies are very detailed and include many variables, whereas large samples make generalizations about the nature of each country, often to the detriment of accurate or appropriate variables (456).
• Traditionally, political science has considered national politics independent of international influence, a major mistake as countries have historically created political institutions in response to international events, sometimes mimicking successful models elsewhere. The modern world features even more opportunity, as international institutions exercise influence on the design of institutions in multiple countries (458-460).