Teaching Comparative

Thinking Comparatively

Timothy C. Lim, author of Doing Comparative Politics put together a lesson plan on "Teaching Comparative Methodology." It's based on a section of the second chapter, "Comparing to Learn; Learning to Compare."

Comparative methodology is perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of comparative politics. For my students (I teach undergraduate courses in comparative politics), the trick is to make comparative analysis seem relevant—something that can be applied to a range of issues and problems. For this reason, I tend to look for examples that

1. are closely related to social issues in the United States, and
2. can be presented in an interesting and thought-provoking manner.

For these reasons I’ve used Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, in which he asks the question: "Why do so many Americans kill each other with guns?"



To answer this question he provides a rudimentary comparative framework: he compares the US to a range of other democracies, including Germany, Japan, Australia, and Britain. Basically, he uses these cases as a way to “control for” a range of variables. In so doing, he demonstrates that certain variables—e.g., exposure to violent video games, “goth rock,” even easy access to guns—cannot, in themselves, explain America’s high rate of gun violence. In other words, if listening to Marilyn Manson, say, were the reason why so Americans kill each with guns, then we should expect to see the same phenomenon in every society in which kids listened to Marilyn Manson. This obviously isn’t the case, so, through a simple application of comparative principles, we know that we need to look for answers elsewhere.

Moore does this by drawing a slightly deeper comparison between Canada and the United States. I am not going to go through the whole process here. Suffice it to say that Moore’s comparison of the US and Canada provides both positive and negative lessons for students.

Using Moore’s argument allows for a highly interactive teaching environment.

I usually start by showing a clip of Moore’s film, follow this up with a guided discussion, and then, after all the material has been digested, ask students to respond to an essay question that asks them, in the most simple terms, to critique Moore’s argument from a comparative perspective. I do this by having students write a “conversation” with Moore after a chance meeting in Starbucks. If anyone wants the text of my assignment, please e-mail me at tclim@calstatelae.edu). [You can also find more commentary on Moore's methodology on pp. 3-4 and 35-36 in Dr. Lim's book.]

Link to the script of Bowling for Columbine
 
I recently came across another good example to use: John Stossel’s report, Stupid in America (available at http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338).



In this report, Stossel uses comparisons to make the case that the basic problem facing the American school system is the lack of “competition,” and, more specifically, the lack of a voucher system.

There are plenty of fundamental problems with his report from a comparative perspective, but that is exactly why it is so useful. It provides a lot of material for discussion. Moreover, by focusing on the methodological problems underlying his report, students really learn the utility of thinking beyond knee-jerk reactions. Another advantage of using Stossel’s report is that it has inspired a lot of discussion in cyberspace — this gives students a good opportunity to do a lot of research and evaluate different arguments on their own.

I’ve written my own critique from a comparative perspective, which you can access at http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/tclim/weblog/stossel.htm. I haven't yet used this case in my classes, but I plan to this fall. I'm looking forward to it.

posted by Ken Wedding @ 10:54 AM