Comparative Politics Made Simple
Here's a suggestion for Advanced Placement teachers. You've probably heard this before. Monitor the resources available on the AP Central Comparative Government and Politics pages. (That link probably won't work unless you're already logged in at AP Central. You'll have to go to the main AP Central page and register or log in.)This morning, I checked in at AP Central to see what was new, and found something wonderful I hadn't seen before.
Jean-Germain Gros' essay, Comparative Politics Made Simple. (That link probably won't work either unless you're already logged in at AP Central.)
Gros, teaches in the political science department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and has a fine skill at essay writing. He really doesn't make comparative politics simple, but he certainly packs a lot of important ideas into 15 paragraphs.Look at this list of concepts discussed and defined in the essay: method of study, field of study, secondary sources, primary sources, normative, positive (empirical), theory, nation-state, units of analysis, levels of analysis, economy, state, political institution, ideology, culture, civil society, international environment, multinational government-sanctioned institutions, multinational, privately-owned corporations, international nongovernmental organizations, political economy theory, modernization theory, and dependency theory.
And he includes all that information in a flowing narrative that never seems like a list of dictionary definitions.
This essay can help students. It would probably be overwhelming as an introduction to a course, but it would make a great basis for a summary or review activity. You could ask students to supply examples for the concepts Gros discusses.
As Gros concludes, "... comparative politics is about serious issues... its raison d'être is quite simple: the world is diverse, not monolithic. Furthermore, the world is getting smaller... [and] knowledge is the sine qua non (precondition) for success in an interdependent... world."
Labels: concepts, pedagogy, theory
posted by Ken Wedding @ 12:03 PM
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