Comparative Politics
Our Comparative Politics subfield studies politics across a wide range of places and contexts, at the national, subnational and even international levels. Comparativists engage in qualitative and quantitative research, inquiring into such questions as why some places have strong and others weak states, why democracy emerges in some places and autocracy in others, what causes revolutions and regime transition, as well as on how political parties represent interests and how policymaking works across different contexts. Current areas of departmental research in comparative politics include comparative public policy, politics in Latin America, the Middle East and Australia, human rights and human security, political violence, political parties and federalism.