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comparative politics > 1- the logic of comparison > Flashcards

1- the logic of comparison Flashcards

1
Q

what does comparative politics help us to understand?

A
  • why political outcomes happen in different countries and then helps to make policies to change outcomes
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2
Q

what factors make answers valuable?

A
  • falsifiability, can it be proved wrong?
  • internal validity, is there cause and effect in your research
  • external validity: are your findings relevant to other existing research or cases?
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3
Q

what is a theory?

A

a logically consistent statement that tells us why things we observe occur
trys to explain the world

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4
Q

what are the three types of theory?

A
  • grand narrative
  • middle range
  • existing literature
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5
Q

what are grand narrative theories?

A

ones that try to explain everything such as marxism or feminism

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6
Q

what are middle range theories?

A

transferable concepts
for example how the bourgeois are important to democratisation

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7
Q

what are existing literature theories

A

particlar pheonomena
such as the domestic division of labour

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8
Q

what is path dependency?

A

past conditions shape future conditions institutions can be committed to develop in certain ways as a result of their strucual properties or values
history shapes the future

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9
Q

what is a dependent variable?

A

the thing you are trying to explain
ex. democratic collapse

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10
Q

what is an independent variable

A

that causes of what you are trying to explain
ex. authoritarian leaders

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11
Q

what are intervening variables

A

intermediate steps in a casual chain
explaining why or how the relationship exists

ex level of income helps to explain the relationship between level of education (independent variable) and spending (dependent variable)

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12
Q

what is deductive reasoning

A
  • when a theory is observed
  • a hypothesis is created and then researched
  • to either be confirmed or denied

from the general to the specific
theory to obersvation and confirmation

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13
Q

what is inductive reasoning?

A
  • observing something happening
  • indetifies a patterns an regulartieis
  • then test a hypotheiss to create a theory

obersvation to theory

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14
Q

mills method of agreement

A

look for all factors that are present on all occasions that E occurs

for example when studying democratic backsliding you will look for all occasions whereit has happened and look at all the similar factors

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15
Q

mills method of difference

A
  • tells us to look for some factors present when E occurs and absent when another similar occasion happens when E doesn’t occur
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16
Q

what research is mill’s method of difference used in?

A

‘small N’ investigations

17
Q

flaws with mill’s methods

A
  • makes large assumptions leading to curiosity rather than research outcomes and the examination of only one cause rather than more than 2 factors working together
    leads to deterministic rather than probabilistic research method
18
Q

what is a casual mechanism

A

an explanation of how a cause produces and effect

19
Q

what is process tracing?

A
  • involves following the steps of the causal mechanism
  • links the dependent and independnet variabels together throug the process of interveinign vraibles
    links how things flow from x to y
20
Q

what are the steps of logic of process tracing?

A
  • a researcher comes up with a clear and explicit casual chain
  • this is derived from some general theory or common sense
  • then they confirm each stage of the link do exist by utilising specific obersevations drawn from the case
21
Q

what are divergences?

A
  • when two events occur with a similar factor but different outcomes
22
Q

convergences?

A

when two or more events occur without a similar factors but have similar outcomes

23
Q

what is a controlled comparison?

A

examining the relationship between an independnet variable and a dependnet variable

24
Q

advantages of controlled comparisons

A
  • when done correct can generate external and internal validity
  • can illuminate the world’s great divergences and convergences across nation sates
  • divergences sucha s why india left british colonialism a democracy but bermuda didnt
  • convergences such as the french revolution v the intervwar russian revoltion when they had similar outocomes but different motivations
25
Q

disadvantages of controlled comparisons

A
  • crticised by quanitiative scholars for having restictive epstimological assumptions made that dont justify the uthors ambitions
  • multi-method becoming more popular way to research
26
Q

what issues are there of trade offs in comparative research

A
  • lots of research has to decide in either having a large statement after research which has wide applicbility across a broad population an dhavng a deeper narrower arguent that idenify a causual pathway in a smalll number of cases
  • multimethod has calmed this down
27
Q

what are the four levels of analysis to explain politics

A
  • individual agency shaping politics
  • group agency shaping politics
  • states
  • international organisations
28
Q

what is the supply and demand argument of politics

A

do social structures shape institutions (agency) v do institutions shape social structures (strucutral)

29
Q

what are counterfactuals?

A

give a different perspective of what hasn’t happened but could have

for example
if germany had one the second world war what the world would have looked like

30
Q

disadvantages of comparison

A
  • monocaulsaity: some things canot be compared with others
  • endogeinity: when a variable observed that isnt included in our model is related to a varibale we have incorperated into out model
  • hard to establish internal validity as some exmaples wont show cause and effect
  • external validity: soem exampples are bad to be used in an external setting
  • selection bais: amny researches choose exmapels that fit into their hypotheiss n dprove it right
31
Q

what do theories aim to do?

A
  • produce a set of causual relationships between the DV and IV
  • makes predicitions
  • create a testable hypothesis
  • is falsifiable
32
Q

what is epsteimology

A

the theory of knlowedge and generating knoweldge
in politics it is how to gain knowedlge to make society just

33
Q

what is ontology?

A

a way to explain the world by. putting things into categoriy. explains things as they are rather than trying to change things

comparative politics (8 decks)

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