COMPREHENSIVE EXAM IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS
AUGUST 2012
METHODS. Select one question.
1. Compare and contrast the area studies approach with the comparative politics approach. To what extent are these two approaches complementary and to what extent are they antithetical? What sort of questions are each of these approaches better suited to addressing than the other? Can the two approaches be successfully integrated? If so, how? If not, why?
2. Prepare a sample syllabus for a course on comparative politics theory and methods. The course meets once weekly for twelve weeks. Each week you should describe the nature of the problematic and questions to be addressed and how they related to the field of comparative politics; the readings you will assign for that week; and three writing assignments.
SUBSTANTIVE QUESTIONS. Select two questions.
1. Compare and contrast the utility for understanding the causes of the Arab Spring revolutions present in the theory of revolution advanced by any TWO of the following: Crane Brinton, Barrington Moore, Ted Robert Gurr, Theda Skocpol, Jack Goldstone, Jeff Goodwin, John Foran, and Eric Selbin.
2. Discuss the existing theories of democratic transition in light of the experience of the Arab Spring so far.
3. Dependency theory advocates presented their arguments as a corrective to modernization theory. What were the core points of contention? How did proponents of each theory explain development and underdevelopment? Finally, much has changed since the 1960s/1970s when this debate was raging: how, and in what regard, have such events affirmed or debunked these theories? Has there been a synthesis in the field of development or political economy that goes beyond this debate?
4. Evaluate the concept of the state in political science over the past several decades. In particular, discuss the shifts in the field since Theda Skocpol and her associates argued for the need to “bring the state back in” to political science.