| name | cps-topic-selection |
| description | Use when deciding whether a research question fits Comparative Political Studies (CPS) and how to frame its comparative contribution. Tests comparative leverage and travel; it does not design the study or write the paper. |
Topic Selection & Comparative Fit (cps-topic-selection)
CPS publishes work in comparative politics — democratization & regimes, political institutions,
political behavior & participation, ethnic politics & conflict, comparative political economy, and
parties & elections — where the contribution is comparative in design or in the portability of the
claim. The first job is to confirm the question earns a place in a comparative-politics journal, not a
single-country area journal and not a general poli-sci flagship.
When to trigger
- Choosing a question or deciding if CPS is the right venue
- A draft reads as a single-country case with no comparative leverage
- A reviewer or colleague said "this is interesting but why CPS / why comparative?"
- Deciding whether a single case can carry a portable theoretical claim
The comparative-fit test (run all four)
- Comparative leverage. What varies across your cases or over time, and does that variation
identify the claim? "Why do some countries/regions/periods do X while others do Y?" is the CPS
question form. A snapshot of one country at one time has none.
- Travel. State the argument as a mechanism, then name a different region or regime type where it
should also operate. If it only makes sense in your one country, it is area studies, not CPS.
- Comparative-politics stake. Connect to a live CP debate (regime durability, institutional design,
ethnic mobilization, redistribution, electoral behavior). A comparativist outside your region should
see why the answer matters.
- Right venue. CPS is the comparative specialist — not the general flagship (APSR/AJPS), not IR
(World Politics / International Organization), not UK-general (British Journal of Political Science).
See the sibling guard below.
Framing priority (highest first)
- A comparative puzzle with leverage — variation across cases/time that the design exploits.
- A portable mechanism — a causal story another comparativist can carry to a new setting.
- A measurement or conceptual advance that improves how a CP phenomenon is compared cross-nationally.
- A reappraisal of a comparative regularity with new cases, data, or design.
- (Weak) A single descriptive country study with no comparative or theoretical leverage.
Single-case work that still fits
A single case can fit if it is a case of something general: a hard/least-likely test of a comparative
theory, a deviant case that exposes scope conditions, or the source of a mechanism you argue travels.
Say what the case is a case of, and to which population the claim generalizes (hand off to
cps-research-design).
Sibling guard (do not mis-target)
- APSR / AJPS — general US political-science flagships; CPS wants the comparative contribution, not a discipline-wide pitch.
- World Politics / International Organization — IR and IR-adjacent comparative; CPS is domestic-comparative-politics first.
- British Journal of Political Science — broad UK generalist; CPS is the comparative specialist.
Checklist
Anti-patterns
- "Area studies in disguise" — one country, no comparative leverage, no claim that travels
- Discipline-wide pitch better suited to APSR/AJPS than to the comparative-politics readership
- A pure-IR or pure-formal-theory question that never compares political systems
- A descriptive country profile with no puzzle, mechanism, or generalization
Output format
【Comparative puzzle】one sentence, with the variation that identifies it
【Cases / units / period】and the comparison logic
【Portable mechanism】+ a named second setting it should travel to
【CP literature engaged】the debate it speaks to
【Venue check】CPS vs. APSR/AJPS/WP/IO/BJPS — why CPS
【Next】cps-literature-positioning
Supplementary resources
