Inside Countries Subnational Research in Comparative Politics

Although comparative politics is conventionally seen as the study of politics across countries, the field has a longstanding and increasingly prominent tradition in national contexts; focusing on subnational units, institutions, actors and processes. This book offers the first comprehensive assessment of the substantive, theoretical, and methodological contributions. With empirical chapters from across the contemporary Global South, including India, Mexico, and China, as well as Russia, the contributors show how subnational research provides useful insights about substantive themes in political science, from regimes and representation, to states and security, to social and economic development. In addition to methodological chapters with specific guidance about best practices for doing subnational research, this volume also proposes a set of strategies for subnational research, assesses their strengths and weaknesses, and offers illustrative empirical applications.

Introduction; 1. Subnational research in comparative politics: substantive, theoretical and methodological contributions Agustina Giraudy, Eduardo Moncada and Richard Snyder; Part I. Issues of Method and Research Design: 2. Politics in space: methodological considerations for taking space seriously in subnational research Imke Harbers and Matthew C. Ingram; 3. Units of analysis in subnational research Hillel Soifer; Part II. Regimes and Representation: 4. Politics in the provinces: subnational regimes in Russia, 1992–2005 Gavril Bilev; 5. Multi-level causation in gender policy: abortion and violence against women laws in the Mexican states Caroline Beer; Part III. States and Security: 6. Multi-level Partisan conflict and drug violence in Mexico: when do criminal organizations attack subnational elected officials? Guillermo Trejo and Sandra Ley; 7. Subnational units, the locus of choice, and concept formation: conceptualizing civilian behavior in contexts of Civil War Ana Arjona; Part IV. Social and Economic Development: 8. Subnationalism and social development: the subnational welfare state in India Prerna Singh; 9. Indigenous welfare, tribal homelands, and the impact of civil society organizations: a subnational analysis of federal India Sunila S. Kale and Nimah Mazaheri; 10. Local states of play: land and urban politics in reform era China Meg Rithmire; Conclusion: 11. Empirical and theoretical frontiers of subnational research in comparative politics Agustina Giraudy, Eduardo Moncada and Richard Snyder.

Agustina Giraudy is Assistant Professor at American University. Her research focuses on subnational democracy and subnational institutions in developing countries. She is the author of Democrats and Autocrats (2015).
Eduardo Moncada is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. His research focuses on crime, violence, and the political economy of development. He is the author of Cities, Business and the Politics of Urban Violence in Latin America (2016).
Richard Snyder is a faculty fellow at the Watson Institute and a professor in the Department of Political Science at Brown University, Rhode Island. He is the author of Politics after Neoliberalism: Reregulation in Mexico (Cambridge, 2001) and Passion, Craft and Method in Comparative Politics (2007) with Gerardo L. Munck.