1932

Abstract

The article examines the emergence and implications of comparative political theory (CPT). It distinguishes theorizing based on travel and observation from that based on contemplation. Tracing the rise of the term CPT to 1997, it explains the academic, geopolitical, and cultural transformations that gave rise to some of the earlier work in the field. The acceleration of globalization also led to the rapid appearance of new intercultural and transnational approaches to political theory that move beyond the West. The article proceeds to analyze the methodological variety and alternatives within CPT work, arguing that we ought to take a broad, ecumenical approach to non-Western and cross-cultural theorizing rather than posit one single method as best. It presents two broad categories of CPT, one that is normative and another that is interpretive. The article closes by examining regional contributions in CPT, critiques, and supporting stances for CPT.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-071113-044647
2015-05-11
2025-02-12
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/polisci/18/1/annurev-polisci-071113-044647.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-071113-044647&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Abou el Fadl K. 2004. Islam and the Challenge of Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  2. Ackerly BA. 2005. Is liberalism the only way toward democracy? Confucianism and democracy. Polit. Theory 33:4547–76 [Google Scholar]
  3. Aguilar JA. 2012. Liberty in Mexico: Writings on Liberalism from the Early Republican Period to the Second Half of the Twentieth Century. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund [Google Scholar]
  4. al-Ghannouchi R. 1993. al-Hurriyat al-‘Ammah fi al-Dawla al-Islamiya Beirut: Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda al-‘Arabiya [Google Scholar]
  5. Ateh P. 2013. Democracy and Human Rights in Africa. Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa RPCIG [Google Scholar]
  6. Ayittey G. 2011. Defeating Dictators: Fighting Tyranny in Africa and Around the World. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan [Google Scholar]
  7. Bai T. 2012. China: The Political Philosophy of the Middle Kingdom London: Zed [Google Scholar]
  8. Bajpai R. 2011. Debating Difference: Group Rights and Liberal Democracy in India New Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  9. Bell D, Hahm C. 2004. The Politics of Affective Relations: East Asia and Beyond. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  10. Bell D, Li C. 2013. The East Asian Challenge for Democracy New York: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  11. Benhabib S. 1986. Critique, Norm, and Utopia: A Study of the Foundations of Critical Theory New York: Columbia Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  12. Bhargava R. 2009. Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  13. Black A. 2011. The way forward in comparative political thought. J. Int. Polit. Theory 7:2:221–28 [Google Scholar]
  14. Chakrabarty D. 2009. Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  15. Chan J. 2013. Confucian Perfectionism: A Political Philosophy for Modern Times Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  16. Chatterjee P. 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories 11 Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  17. Cui Z. 2012. China's future: suggestions from petty bourgeois socialist theories and some Chinese practices. Contemporary Chinese Political Thought F Dallmayr, T Zhao 185–208 Lexington: Univ. Press Kentucky [Google Scholar]
  18. Dallmayr F. 1996. Beyond Orientalism: Essays on Cross-Cultural Encounter. Albany, NY: SUNY Press [Google Scholar]
  19. Dallmayr F. 1997. Introduction: toward a comparative political theory. Rev. Polit. 59:3:421–27 [Google Scholar]
  20. Dallmayr F. 2004. Beyond monologue: for a comparative political theory. Perspect. Polit. 2:2249–57 [Google Scholar]
  21. Dallmayr F. 2010. Comparative Political Theory: An Introduction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan [Google Scholar]
  22. Dallmayr F, Rosales JM. 2001. Beyond Nationalism? Sovereignty and Citizenship Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  23. Darling L. 2013. A History of Social Justice and Political Power in the Middle East: The Circle of Justice from Mesopotamia to Globalization New York: Routledge [Google Scholar]
  24. Dorraj M. 1997. Symbolic and utilitarian political value of a tradition: martyrdom in the Iranian political culture. Rev. Polit. 59:3489–522 [Google Scholar]
  25. Euben RL. 1997a. Comparative political theory: an Islamic fundamentalist critique of rationalism. J. Polit. 59:1:28–55 [Google Scholar]
  26. Euben RL. 1997b. Premodern, antimodern or postmodern? Islamic and Western critiques of modernity. Rev. Polit. 59:3429–60 [Google Scholar]
  27. Euben RL. 1999. Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism. A Work of Comparative Political Theory Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  28. Euben RL. 2008. Journeys to the Other Shore: Muslim and Western Travelers in Search of Knowledge Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  29. Fernández-Díaz O. 1991. Gramsci y Mariátegui: frente a la ortodoxia. Nueva Soc. 115:135–44 [Google Scholar]
  30. Fox RA. 1997. Confucian and communitarian responses to liberal democracy. Rev. Polit. 59:3561–92 [Google Scholar]
  31. Fox RA, Carlson J. 2013. The State of Nature in Comparative Political Thought: Western and Non-Western Perspectives Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  32. Freeden M, Vincent A. 2013. Comparative Political Thought: Theorizing Practices New York: Routledge [Google Scholar]
  33. Fukuyama F. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Maxwell Macmillan [Google Scholar]
  34. Gargarella R. 2013. Latin American Constitutionalism, 1810–2010. New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  35. Godrej F. 2009. Response to “What is Comparative Political Theory?”. Rev. Polit. 71:4:567–82 [Google Scholar]
  36. Godrej F. 2011. Cosmopolitan Political Thought: Method, Practice, Discipline New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  37. Guha R. 1997. Dominance without Hegemony: History and Power in Colonial India Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  38. Habermas J. 1984. The Theory of Communicative Action. Boston: Beacon [Google Scholar]
  39. Hashemi N. 2009. Islam, Secularism, and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  40. Henders SJ. 2006. Democratization and Identity: Regimes and Ethnicity in East and Southeast Asia Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  41. Herodotus. 2008 (c. 440 B.C.). The Histories. R Waterfield, trans New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  42. Hirschmann NJ. 1997. Eastern veiling, Western freedom?. Rev. Polit. 59:3461–88 [Google Scholar]
  43. Huntington S. 1996. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon & Schuster [Google Scholar]
  44. Iqtidar H. 2011. Secularizing Islamists ? Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
  45. Jahanbegloo R. 2012. Civil Society and Democracy in Iran Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  46. Jenco LK. 2007. “What does heaven ever say?” A methods-centered approach to cross-cultural engagement. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 101:4741–55 [Google Scholar]
  47. Jenco LK. 2010. Making the Political: Founding and Action in the Political Theory of Zhang Shizhao New York: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  48. Jenco LK. 2011. Recentering political theory: the promise of mobile locality. Cult. Crit. 79:127–59 [Google Scholar]
  49. Kaviraj S. 2010. The Imaginary Institution of India: Politics and Ideas New York: Columbia Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  50. Keyman FE. 2007. Remaking Turkey: Globalization, Alternative Modernities, and Democracies Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  51. Khan MAM. 2006. Islamic Democratic Discourse: Theory, Debates, and Philosophical Perspectives Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  52. Klausen JC. 2014. Economies of violence: the Bhagavadgītā and the fostering of life in Gandhi's and Ghose's anticolonial theories. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 108:1182–95 [Google Scholar]
  53. London J. 2008. How to do things with fables: Ibn Al-Muqaffa's frank speech in stories from Kalila wa-Dimna. History Polit. Thought 29:2189–212 [Google Scholar]
  54. Machiavelli N. 2010 (1513). The Prince H Mansfield, trans Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
  55. Mamdani M. 1996. Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  56. Mantena K. 2012. Another realism: the politics of Gandhian nonviolence. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 106.02:455–70 [Google Scholar]
  57. March AF. 2009a. What is comparative political theory?. Rev. Polit. 71:531–65 [Google Scholar]
  58. March AF. 2009b. Islam and Liberal Citizenship: The Search for an Overlapping Consensus Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  59. McWilliams S. 2014. Traveling Back: Toward a Global Political Theory Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  60. Mehta U. 2010. Gandhi on democracy, politics, and the ethics of everyday life. Mod. Intell. History 7:2355–71 [Google Scholar]
  61. Nederman CJ, Shogimen T. 2008. Western Political Thought in Dialogue with Asia Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  62. Ochoa Espejo P. 2012. Paradoxes of popular sovereignty: a view from Spanish America. J. Polit. 74:41053–65 [Google Scholar]
  63. Palti E. 2010. Mitos y realidad de la cultura política latinoamericana. Buenos Aires: Prometeo [Google Scholar]
  64. Parel A. 1992. Comparative Political Philosophy: Studies Under the Upas Tree. Newbury Park, CA: Sage [Google Scholar]
  65. Parel A. 2007. Gandhi's Philosophy and the Quest for Harmony New York: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  66. Rawls J. 1971. A Theory of Justice Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  67. Rutland P. 2009. Democracy in Russia: a Tocquevillian perspective. Conversations with Tocqueville G Craiutu 199–224 Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  68. Sachedina A. 2001. The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism. New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  69. Said E. 1978. Orientalism New York: Vintage [Google Scholar]
  70. Salkever SG, Nylan M. 1994. Comparative political philosophy and liberal education: “looking for friends in history.”. PS: Polit. Sci. Polit. 27.02:238–47 [Google Scholar]
  71. Soroush A. 2000. Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush M Sadri, A Sadri New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  72. Souza J, Sinder V. 2007. Imagining Brazil Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  73. Spivak GC. 1999. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  74. Stokes E. 1980. The Peasant and the Raj: Studies in Agrarian Society and Peasant Rebellion in Colonial India 23 New York: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  75. Van Vugt WE, Cloete GD. 2000. Race and Reconciliation in South Africa: A Multicultural Dialogue in Comparative Perspective Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  76. von Vacano D. 2006. The Art of Power: Machiavelli, Nietzsche, and the Making of Aesthetic Political Theory. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
  77. von Vacano D. 2012. The Color of Citizenship: Race, Modernity and Latin American/Hispanic Political Thought New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  78. Wang H. 2009. The End of the Revolution: China and the Limits of Modernity London: Verso [Google Scholar]
  79. Williams M, Warren M. 2014. A democratic case for comparative political theory. Polit. Theory 42:126–57 [Google Scholar]
  80. Wingo A. 2003. Veil Politics in Liberal Democratic States. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  81. Wiredu K. 1996. Cultural Universals and Particulars: An African Perspective. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  82. Yan X. 2013. Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-071113-044647
Loading
  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error