Advanced Comparative Politics

This course provides a deep dive into comparative political science. It takes the form of a “great books” course that focuses on outstanding, recently published texts. We will investigate how the authors formulated their research questions, conducted their field research, developed their causal explanations, found inspiration to persevere, and dealt with methodological challenges. We will also delve into the substantive issues that the books tackle, which include some of the most urgent issues in global politics. Each book we will study is an exemplary, inspiring work, and taken together the texts cover a vast range of substantive topics and geographical regions.