Subnational Research in Comparative Politics

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

Although comparative politics is conventionally seen as the study of politics across countries, the field has a long-standing and increasingly prominent tradition of studying politics not across countries but inside them by focusing on subnational units, institutions, actors, and processes. Inside Countries: Subnational Research in Comparative Politics (Giraudy, Moncada and Snyder, eds. Cambridge University Press, 2019), is the first comprehensive assessment of the substantive, theoretical, and methodological contributions of subnational research to comparative politics. With empirical chapters drawn from across the contemporary Global South, including China, India, Mexico, and Colombia, in addition to Russia, the book shows how subnational research provides powerful and distinctive insights about major substantive themes at the heart of modern political science, from regimes and representation, to states and security, to social and economic development. In addition to including methodological chapters with specific guidance about best practices for doing subnational research, the book also proposes a set of new strategies for subnational research, assesses their strengths and weaknesses, and offers illustrative empirical applications. This Roundtable brings together the editors of Inside Countries and leading scholars of comparative research to discuss these contributions as well as the opportunities and challenges of future subnational research in comparative politics.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 11: Comparative Politics

Chair

• Agustina Giraudy American University

Presenters

• Richard O. Snyder Brown University

• Gerardo L. Munck University of Southern California

• Kelly M. McMann Case Western Reserve University

• Lily L. Tsai Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Miguel Centeno Princeton University

• Eduardo Moncada Barnard College, Columbia University