Introduction to Comparative Politics - Is there a Grand Theory of Political Science?

Michael Rossi
Rutgers University
Department of Political Science

Recorded January 23, 2017

Part 2 of my two-part lecture on the Comparative Method. This discussion focuses on the search for a "grand theory" of politics, or more specifically political development.

The lecture draws from Howard Wiarda's article "Comparative Politics: Past and Present" (1985) that examines the impact Seymour Martin Lipset's earlier work "Some Social Requisites of Democracy" (1959), whose work on modernization theory became adopted by political scientists throughout the 1960s as a sort of "grand theory" litmus test on which emerging countries were more likely to modernize and democratize than others.

The lecture continues to critique the notion of modernization theory AS grand theory, and notes how comparative politics needs to rely on more nuance and qualitative specifics for the region under study.

Chapter markers:

00:30 - What is "Grand Theory"?
01:15 - What is Modernization Theory?
09:10 - A Brief History of the Study of "Grand Theory"
12:15 - The Continued Elusiveness of Grand Theory
18:12 - Giovanni Sartori and "Conceptual Stretching"
25:05 - So Is Democracy Specific to some Societies and Cultures?
31:47 - Or was there Ever a "Grand Theory" at All?
37:41 - Can We Improve Research Methodology?

Music: Marco Uccellini: Sonate, arie et correnti, Op. 3 - Aria quinta sopra la Bergamasca - ℗ 2016 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin

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