what is CP (1.2-2.2)

What is correlation?

- An apparent relationship between 2 or more variables - Not an explanation - Does not establish causality o Correlations are necessary but not sufficient to establish a casual relationship

what are the 7 major challenges with CP?

- Controlling a large number of variables - Controlling for the interaction of variables - Limited number of cases to research - Limited access to information from cases - Uneven research across cases and religions - Cases selected on the basis of effect and not cause (selection bias) - Variables may be either cause or effect (endogeneity)

what re the main problems in CP?

- Difficulty of establishing - Possibility of having only a correlation instead of causal relationship

what is casual effect? ex?

- Effect of some treatment: the difference between the outcome when a unit receives the treatment and the outcome when a unit does not receive the treatment - Ex: I give you a smart oil before a midterm o IV: smart pill o Treatment: me giving you the pill o DV: midterm score o Casual effect: difference in score between you having taken the pill vs. you without the pill

Hypothesis and Variables

- Hypothesis: an educated guess about how these variables relate - Variable: something that can vary or change - Dependent variable: the variable that is affected by the presence of the independent variable - Independent variable: the variable that doesn't depend on changes in other variables

explain stable democracy and variables

- IV causes stable democracy - Democratic stability causes DV

Is vs Ought questions

- Is: what is political reality - ought: what ought to be done about this reality

explain comparative methods

- Lijphart: "The logic of the comparative method is... also the same as the logic of the experimental method. The comparative method resembles the statistical method in all respects except one. The crucial difference is that the number of cases it deals with is too small to permit systematic control by means of partial correlations." - Much of our efforts are in being aware of the method's limitations and minimizing the weaknesses. - Case studies and focused comparisons

what are the solutions to these challenges?

- Mimic or construct the counterfactual - Create 2 conditions in which there is no significant difference between one subject and the other except for the one treatment

what are natural experiments?

- Not an experiment because it is not a controlled experiment done by the researcher - "an observational study in which an event or a situation that allows for the random or seemingly random assignment of study subjects to different groups is exploited to answer a particular question" - Randomization due to weather events, natural disasters, policy changes, et

core concepts: politics vs. power

- Politics: the struggle of any group for power that will give one or more persons the ability to make decisions for the larger group - power: the ability to influence others or impose ones will on them

why is it called political "Science"?

- Science is based on a process of learning not a topic studied - Emphasizes empirical (what is) not normative (what should be) knowledge - Key distinction: we want to understand not what something is but why it occurred

what is most different design?

- Selecting 2 cases that are similar on the dependent variable but are really different when it comes to alternative explanations. The main factors where they are similar - your independent variables - must be what explains their similar outcomes in the dependent variable

what is most similar design? ex?

- Selecting two cases that differ on the dependent variable but are really similar on potential control variables. The main factors on which they are different - the independent variable - must be what explain their difference in the dependent variable - Ex: regime change in Tunisia vs Egypt

explain statistical analysis

- Statistics & Politics linked• "Statistics" originally meant "science dealing with data about the condition of astate or community." - States developing the census for tax• Lijphart (684) says, "The statistical method can be regarded... as an approximation ofthe experimental method"... by using observed data and manipulating equations. - Ex. The more educated a population, the higher its proportion of post-materialists; Thehigher a person's social status, the greater his or her participation in politics; Themore affluent a country, the more likely it is to be an established democracy; etc.

what are trends in comparative politics

- Traditional approach: emphasis on describing political systems and their various institutions - Behavioral revolution: the shift from a descriptive study of politics to one that emphasizes causality, explanation, and prediction; emphasizes the political behavior of individuals more than larger political structures and quantitative more that qualitative methodology, modernization theory predominates

what is the fundamental problem of causal inference? what is counterfactual?

- We observe either the outcome we are interested in or the counterfactual but never both at the same time - Counterfactual: state of the world treated participants would have experienced in the absence of treatment

what are the 4 reasons why we should compare

- comparison makes research feasible - it allows for discovery - it serves as a systematic test - it broadens our view

what does studying comparative politics help with?

- draw generalizations at the cross-national level - ex. studying party systems - directly comparing the US to the Netherlands vs studying the US and the Netherlands separately

what its double bind?

- nearly impossible to establish causality without comparing reality to its counterfactual - But impossible to observe both the reality and its counterfactual

what are the 3 methodologies

1. experiments 2. statistical analysis 3. comparative methods

what are the advantages and risks of statistical analysis?

Advantages: - Provides precise summaries of large amounts of data - Uses standard techniques that other researchers can also use and replicate. Risks - Existence of a third, unmeasured variable? Include all related variables as control variables - Unestablished direction of relationship

what is international politics?

The relations between different actors in the world, the characteristics of those relations, and their consequences.

What are value judgements? ex?

evaluations that we make on the basis of values, standards or ideals, It is not feasible or testable - ex: democracies are morally superior to dictatorships

what are focused comparisons?

i. Between case studies and statistical analysis ii. Consists of a small number (1-2) of studied units iii. Ex: most similar and most different designs

inductive vs. deductive reasoning

inductive reasoning- reasoning from the specific to the general, forming concepts about all members of a category based on some members. deductive reasoning- reasoning from the general to the specific.

empirical evidence

information acquired by observation or experimentation

what is CP more concerned with: Is or ought

is

what topics overlap in IR and CP

o Civil wars o Terrorism o Human rights o Economic developments and global poverty

what topics are covered in comparative politics

o Democracy and democratization o Elections o Political culture o Domestic economic policy o Domestic economic policy o Area studies

what topics are covered in IR

o International organizations o Foreign policy o Interstate war o Trade o Foreign aid

what is the comparative method

the means by which social scientists make comparison - the goal is to solve puzzles by generating hypothesis

what is comparative politics?

the study and comparison of domestic politics across countries

what are experiments according to Lijphart?

• Lijphart: "The experimental method, in its simplest form, uses two equivalent groups,one of which (the experimental group) is exposed to a stimulus while the other (thecontrol group) is not. The two groups are then compared, and any difference can beattributed to the stimulus."• How? Randomization• Lijphart: "The experimental method is the most nearly ideal method for scientificexplanation, but unfortunately it can only rarely be used in political science becauseof practical and ethical impediments."