Methodologies for Public Policies: The Comparative Method

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

Thecourseworkloadfallsintothefollowingcategories:lectures, seminar sessions (organized and conducted by the students with the instructor's supervision), tutorial orientation and conferences, as well as students' personal work.
Each student is expected to prepare a class presentation and discussion of assigned readings, and previously circulate among the group a short summary of the presentation and questions to be raised.

Learning Outcomes

a) in-depth knowledge of the epistemological roots, the methodological features and the technical issues raised by comparative research strategies;
b) critical evaluation of the interaction between theoretical options, research objectives and methodological strategies in the course of comparative data collection and analysis;
c) ability to conceive and develop research projects which resort centrally or complementarily to comparative strategies and enhancestudents?skillstoidentifyandsolveconcreteresearch problems.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. What is the comparative Method?
[The comparative method and other methods; goals, procedures and outcomes]
2. Why compare? [Justifications for comparison]
3. Compare what?
[The choice of cases and selection bias in comparative research]
4. How to compare? [Research designs - variable comparisons]
oriented and case oriented
5. Problems of comparison ["many variables, small n"]

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Resolution Problems: 15.0%
Participation: 15.0%
Synthesis work: 70.0%

Bibliography

Arnold J. Heidenheimer (1985),"Comparative Public Policy at the Crossroads", Journal of Public Policy,5:4, pp 441-465;
Collier, David (1991)"The comparative method: two decades of change" in Rustow, D., Kenneth P. Erickson(eds.)Comparative Political Dynamics:Global Research Perspectives, New York, Harper Collins Publishers;
Della Porta, Donatella e Michael Keating (eds.)Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences. A Pluralist Perspective, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press;
George, Alexander L./Bennett, Andrew (2005),Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences, Cambridge: CUP;
Oyen, Else, (1990),Comparative Methodology. Theory and practise in international social research, London, Sage;
Ragin, Charles C. (1987) The Comparative Method:Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. Berkeley,University of California Press.