Comparative political thought

The origin of political theory (PT) dates back over 2000 years and can be traced to ancient Greece. In its own disciplinary trajectory, PT has gradually unified Western political theories despite existing content-related differences evinced by respective schools’ preferences. However, it has sometimes been denounced as a “Eurocentric” discipline and thereby compelled to foster self-reflection on its own “parochialism.” This sense of parochialist proclivity is considered to explain the necessity of comparative political theory (CPT), which is generally construed as a self-reflective sub-disciplinary wave that redresses PT’s overt Eurocentrism. This chapter briefly surveys PT’s trajectory in order to elucidate why CPT is essentially the corollary to PT’s curved path that requires the self-awareness of its own slanted framework in a self-reflective manner, thereby driving a cross- and transcultural disciplinary paradigm. From this perspective, CPT is a fresh approach to PT that has undeniably emerged from the latter discipline in its genealogy. This indicates that the disciplinary scheme of CPT aims to ameliorate the homogeneous conditions of PT and enrich its disciplinary quality via sober self-reflection.