Ewolucja polityki porównawczej jako subdyscypliny politologii

Abstract

The evolution of comparative politics as a subdiscipline of political science


Comparative politics is one of several main subdisciplines of political science. It deals with structures, actors and political processes. The most important goal of comparative politics is to describe and explain similarities and differences between political systems as well as predict consequences that occur. This article provides an overview of the evolution of comparative politics as it has developed over twenty five centuries: from Aristotle and Platon to Weber to contemporary post-modern lines. I begin by assuming that development follows a schema consisting of three phases: 1. pre-modern times; 2. modern times, and 3. post-modern times. In doing so, I exploit the recent proposal of Klaus von Beyme. Moreover, I suggest that this development can be seen from Kuhn’s perspective of scientific revolution. I then move on to the literature on comparative politics that can be found in different social sciences. Finally, I conclude by claiming that the evolution of comparative politics has been shaped by both the shifts of paradigms approaches and theories in social sciences and real political processes, however, it is not a clear process with phase-by-phase evolution.