I think this course will teach me to understand politics (and the world) much better than I do now. It will teach me not only to know current events, but to really understand them and try to figure out why they are happening. This skill, however, is easier said than done. From reading, I've learned that comparative politics is a particularly challenging and unsure science. The inability to have controlled variables - like a natural scientist in a lab - makes conducting "comparative" experiments difficult and challenging. Dealing with something so fickle as politics will definitely prove to be a great challenge in this course.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Prompt 8/31/2009
Upon reading both intros, I discovered that comparative government was a social science - something I'd probably known before but of which I hadn't been consciously aware. I am used to taking strictly history classes, but comparative government is something very different. I enjoy learning history and about events that occurred in the past, but I'm excited to learn about current events in a different way than I have in previous history courses. Comparative government is the study and comparison of countries in similar situations. These studies begin with a hypothesis to come to a conclusion as to why a country is the way it is. The singular country, however, cannot be examined alone. To draw a truly educated conclusion, this country must be compared to others in similar situations. Learning the skills to make hypothesis and conclusions about current events today is very exciting to me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You've focused on one of the key differences between a course such as this and a history course--its a different approach to explaining why the world is the way that it is. The larger questions that comparative politics tries to answer is important. What's your understanding of what some of those larger questions might be? After all, the key questions are what do we compare? how do we compare it? Why is the comparison important? What overriding questions do you really want to be able to answer once the course is over? In my opinion this goes beyond a better understanding of current events though this is a definite benifit certainly. Think about it and get back to me--comments here are perfect!
ReplyDeleteLarger questions might not only be what to compare or how to do it, but why? Why would it serve useful to learn about other countries and how they work? I believe it's important to learn about other countries for the benefit of our own country. If we can understand other countries' inner workings, we may be able to predict choices they make and how they will affect the US. However, this idea of prediction is a shaky one. We will never have no way of absolutely knowing what a country is going to do or when they will do it. But, through knowledge gained by comparison, we can make an educated hypothesis.
ReplyDelete