Approximating Equilibria:Cases,Theories,and Methods in Comparative Political Studies
Social science research is a dialogue between theories and empirical materials,and theories are evaluated and developed in the process.Different theories offer different knowledge perspectives.Comparative politics is funda-mentally ontological but usually treated as an epistemological and methodological field due to its methodological charac-teristics.A comprehensive and effective accumulation of empirical knowledge is the foundation of the cognitive efficacy of comparative politics,which necessitates rigorous scientific methods.In the current"methods first"research environ-ment,the universality of theoretical generalization and the continuous improvement of methods attract more and more attention,and the basic standard of"meeting the requirements of empirical analysis"is often overlooked,leading to a di-lution of substantive information and a weakening of its relevance to real-world politics.As an eclectic field of research,the study of comparative politics should build on equilibria among empirical information(both descriptive and non-descriptive),theories,and methods.In the lasting tension between the trend to become more scientific and the humanistic traditions of the discipline,the appeal of comparative politics lies in its potentiality to"see both the forest and the trees."
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