An age-old idea of philosophers is that knowledge of the self is gained through knowledge of others. The ego affirms itself by the roundabout way of multiple comparisons. The child develops by imitating or opposing. The very stature of a person, original and unique, exists only in a relative sense. Hegel clearly states that consciousness recognizes itself in others, and knows the other in itself.

What is true for the individual is even more so for societies. there is no nation without other nations. The diversity, which actually contributes to the awakening of contrasting national identities, is the only element that permits the perception of what characterizes people and systems.

Observers who cultivate a distance between themselves and the society in which they live will find new perspectives opening. It is not by accident that among the finest studies on so many countries, we inevitably find the work of a surprisingly perspicacious "stranger".

We can illustrate this proposition by many examples. The existence of 450,000 municipal councillors in France is a fact not give great importance by French political scientists. But for a foreigner like Sidney Tarrow, it constitutes an extraordinary phenomenon that demands the revision of certain cliches nourished by many Frenchmen. To speak of a lack of participation in a country were one out of every sixty citizens is a member of a municipal council may seem a rapid and somewhat superficial judgement, especially if we look to rural areas.

The decay of many American cities was perceived first by non-American observers. Even before World War II, books written by Europeans analyzed this decline, which scholars from the Western side of the Atlantic were so late in discovering.

Source: Dogan Matttei and Pelassy Dominique, How to Compare nations: Strategies in Comparative Politics, Chatham House Publishers, New Jersey, 1984, pp. 5-6.