How to do a typology in comparative politics?

Typologies, taxonomies, classifications: many confusions reign around these notions mobilized in comparative politics and relying on the elaboration of “types”. This article aims to clarify its uses by identifying four forms of typology, to be distinguished according to the mode of elaboration of types (induction vs. deduction) and their operationalization (focused on the constitution of clusters vs. focused on case analysis): the “classifying” typology, the “taxonomic” typology, the “explanatory” typology, and the “ideal-typical” typology. It is also underlined their respective strengths and limits, the importance of the state of the art in the choice of the form of typology, as well as the different heuristic statuses of the types developed in each of them.