ABSTRACT
Public policy can be defined as “anything a government chooses to do or not to do”. Policy theories and the associated methods that can be used in comparative rural policy analysis include contextual factors and variables such as: official actors (i.e. government) and unofficial actors (e.g. interest groups), relevant geographical characteristics (e.g. climate, topography, and natural resources), demographic factors (e.g. population distribution, age, and size), political culture (accepted values and norms for governance), social structure (e.g. class system), economic system (e.g. competitive capitalistic versus social democrat capitalistic), and governmental institutions (e.g. presidential versus parliamentary). This chapter introduces the comparative approach to the study of rural policy processes, institutions, and outcomes at both meso (policy subsystem) and macro (national and supranational) levels of analysis. Both cross-national and within-country case study approaches are covered as well as qualitative and quantitative methodologies. An expansive definition of comparative analysis is used whereby any research that contrasts rural policy processes, institutions, or outcomes from a cross-national or within-country comparative case study perspective is considered “comparative analysis”.
