---
name: cps-topic-selection
description: 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.
---

# 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

- [`../../resources/exemplars/library.md`](../../resources/exemplars/library.md) — verified CPS papers by subfield × method
- [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — CPS scope and aims