Politics Essay Comparative Politics Essay

1. Politics Essay
Politics: the inescapable stalker of our society
Politics is a process by which a group of people, whose opinions or interests might be divergent,
reach collective decisions that are generally regarded as binding on the group and enforced as
common policy.
Political theory or political philosophy is as old as the oldest civilisations. The Greek philosophers,
such as Aristotle and Plato, developed important political theories and methods of government
alongside their more abstract philosophies. One may contest that every society and every belief we
hold is a reflection of the political system we live under. Politics, in it absolute form, is a concept of
society that definitely intrudes into every aspect of human life. No one can escape...show more
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In practice, they often work out differently.
Most of these ideologies shown in the linear diagram have representation of some form in Britain,
whether it be through recognised political parties, pressure groups or non–PC organisations. The
three main parties in the UK are Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats and in our case, their
name broadly represents their place on our linear spectrum of political thought. There are other
ways of defining the above spectrum, the horseshoe version sees the same diagram bent into the
shape of a horseshoe, but more recently, one with the approval of Tony Blair no less, is the Two
Dimensional Spectrum:
Although the central government disperses power to national and local authorities, the UK
Government in its present form is not federalist at all. It may provide power and funding – taken
from its intervention into our mixed economy – and distribute it to our Local Authorities, but for
there to be total federalism in the UK, there must be an equal dispersal of power between all of the
local bodies.
The main properties of this establishment are the parts of the "Welfare State". Pioneered by the
Labour Government of Clement Attlee, the Welfare State revolutionised the UK. National Insurance,
National Assistance, and National Health Service (NHS) Acts were passed, the last of these being
the creation of Attlee's flamboyant left–wing Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan.
Our own "puppet government" – as seen
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2. Comparative Politics Essay
"Those who only know one country know no country." – Seymour Martin Lipset.
The scholar Guy Swanson once said, "Thinking without comparison is unthinkable. And, in the
absence of comparison, so is all scientific thought and scientific research." (cited in Ragin, 1992). As
such, comparison is necessary for the development of political science. The 'art of comparing' can be
seen as what experimentation is to most sciences – the principal and most effective way to test
theory. (Peters, 1998) This essay seeks to describe the different aspects of the 'art of comparing' and
also to detail the reasons why the comparative method is a necessary tool in the belt of any political
scientist.
Comparative politics is one of three main subfields in...show more content...
The first strand can be summed up in this Rudyard Kipling quote: "What should they know of
England, that only England know?" The art of comparison is necessary because it allows
exploration, which is the starting point of all political analysis. To find out about others is to find
out about oneself. Comparison allows political scientists to recognise difference, which is essential
to understanding these differences. One good example of this comparative exploration is
MacAuley's 1967 'Sandino Affair' (cited in Landman, 2000). This is an account of Sandino's
guerrilla attempt to oust US marines from Nicaragua after a presidential succession crisis, and while
it accounts in great detail the events that happened, it is an example of 'evidence without inference'
(Almond 1996, cited in Landman, 2000) – the author tells the story, but makes no attempt to make
sweeping generalisations about the results of US imperialism.
The second strand is classification. The art of comparing allows political scientists to group cases
into distinct categories with shared, identifiable characteristics, allowing us to identify patterns that
will help to understand interactions both between and within political systems. This classification
goes back to the work of Aristotle in 350 BC, when the famous philosopher grouped regime types
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