Historical Development of Comparative Political Science

This article gives an overview of the development of comparative approaches in Political Science. In the pre-modern era, these were, for the most part, either normatively oriented - with the exception of Machiavelli - or based on evolutionist theories. In general, comparisons were not carried out systematically. In classical modernity, comparisons were conducted as controlled experiments and comparative politics established itself as a sub-discipline of Political Science. During this time, it was influenced considerably by Behaviouralism, in particular in the United States, but other approaches existed in parallel. Subsequently, approaches in comparative politics turned to policy analysis and institutional approaches, the latter having been neglected previously. Post-modern approaches broadened the perspective, but are neither compatible with the idea nor do they meet the criteria of a method of controlled comparison.