A CPS paper earns space by moving a comparative-politics debate, not by citing everything. Position the paper so a comparativist immediately sees the gap, the rival accounts, and what your paper adds. CPS spans several literatures (regimes, institutions, behavior, ethnic politics & conflict, comparative political economy, parties & elections) — engage the right one(s) deeply rather than all shallowly.
cps-research-design) and the theory's contrast class (cps-theory-building).| Subfield | Engage | Common miss |
|---|---|---|
| Democratization & regimes | modernization, elite-bargain, institutionalist accounts | ignoring measurement debates (V-Dem vs. Polity) |
| Comparative political economy | VoC, redistribution, welfare-state, growth-coalition work | treating economics literature as the only frame |
| Ethnic politics & conflict | constructivist vs. primordialist, mobilization, salience | conflating ethnicity with region without theory |
| Parties & elections / behavior | cleavage theory, electoral systems, turnout, vote choice | US-centric framing of a cross-national claim |
Create a short map before writing the literature review:
| Element | What to specify | Why CPS reviewers care |
|---|---|---|
| Units | countries, subnational units, parties, voters, organizations, events | Defines the comparison and the level of inference |
| Time | period, reform window, election cycle, conflict phase, regime episode | Separates change over time from cross-case difference |
| Region/case logic | why these cases, and what they represent theoretically | Prevents "case convenience" from masquerading as leverage |
| Rival accounts | institutional, structural, cultural, strategic, or historical alternatives | Shows what the paper will adjudicate rather than merely add |
| Portability | where the mechanism should travel, and where it should fail | Turns a regional study into a comparative contribution |
Use the map to prune citations. Keep works that define the debate, create the rival, or anchor portability across regions; move background-only citations to footnotes or cut them.
cps-research-design)【Debate】the one comparative-politics conversation
【Standing answer + limit】what the field believes / where it breaks
【Gap】stated as a falsifiable claim
【Strongest rival】the explanation the design must rule out
【Comparative debate map】units / time / case logic / rival / portability
【Cross-regional anchors】2–3 works beyond your own region
【Next】cps-theory-building
../../resources/exemplars/library.md — how verified CPS papers locate themselves in a debate../../resources/external_tools.md — comparative datasets that define many CP debates