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cps-topic-selection

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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.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills/blob/HEAD/Comparative-Political-Studies-Skills/skills/cps-topic-selection/SKILL.md

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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)

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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

  • The question is "why do cases differ / change?" — comparative, not single-snapshot
  • The argument is a mechanism that travels to a named second setting
  • It engages an identifiable comparative-politics literature/debate
  • A comparativist of another region can state why it matters
  • Venue checked against the sibling guard (CPS, not APSR/AJPS/WP/IO/BJPS)

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