The Comparative politics in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico

Abstract

There was a long debate to define comparative politics in modern political science between methods vs. objects. Despite the different positions in this debate, in the last decades in Latin America, there has been a growing interest on comparative studies, and also an increasing interest to observe the production trends in comparative politics in this area. Several scholars try to portray and diagnose the "current state of comparative politics", using scientific journals as an indicator. The aim of this work is to perform a meta analysis of these partial diagnoses in order to trace what comparative politics is meant in each one, and in their general sense; that is why, in these paper, we will analyze the methodological criteria used to select: journals, articles and dimensions/variables analyzed. I will focus the research in those contemporary studies that analyze the comparative politics situation in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.