Exam III Flashcards
(20 cards)
What is process tracing?
A fundamental tool of qualitative analysis that draws descriptive and causal inferences from a sequence of events/phenomena to understand causal sequence.
What is Path Dependency in Historical Research?
Refers to the dynamics of self-reinforcing or positive feedback processes in a political system. Once actors have ventured down a particular path they are likely to find it very difficult to reverse course. Initial decisions or conditions almost irreversibly affect subsequent decisions or occurrences. Not only that history matters but that you must identify mechanisms that make moving off the path of history difficult.
What are Critical Junctures in Historical Research?
Major events that disrupt the existing political or economic balance and place institutional arrangements on paths or trajectories which are then very difficult to alter. Relatively short periods of time during which different possibilities were open to agents. Their choices from among options are likely to have significant impant on subsequent outcomes.
What are the advantages of historical analyses?
- By extending the time frame one expands the number of observations.
- Allows the scholar to test for the arrow of causality, assess plausibility of causal arguments.
- Helps the researcher to be sensitive to the temporal boundaries or period effects.
- Can help explain combined effects of institutions and processes: how multiple institutional realms and proceses intersect with one another, often creating unintended consequences.
What are primary sources?
Created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented.
What are secondary sources?
Accounts of events created by someone without firsthand experience.
How can you evaluate primary sources?
- Authenticity: Is the document genuine?
- Credibility: How sincere and accurate was the author of the document?
- Representativeness: To what extent are the documents representative of the totality of relevant documents?
- Meaning: How should we make sense of the document?
What was Abbey Steele’s research question?
What explains political cleansing during civil wars?
What was Abbey Steele’s theory?
Armed groups attempt to politically cleanse civilians perceived to be disloyal, during competition for territorial control.
What type of experiment did Abbey Steele conduct?
Mixed method
What was Abbey Steele’s conclusion?
Displacement is not just a byproduct of other violence, political loyalties are important for understanding patterns of behavior and violence. Elections in the context of political violence could endanger civilians, thus the design of electoral institutions are key.
Why are qualitative methods chosen?
- Inherent data limitations: if quantitative data is missing or unreliable for most developing or underdeveloped countries.
- Rarity of the topic of analysis
- Causal mechanism and causal heterogeneity: causal inference comes from qualitative research, conventional quantitative models fail to accommodate causal complexity, local conditions can alter the causal story.
What is Mill’s method of difference with Small-N and Medium-N experimentation?
Looks for a few cases that are as similar as possible in all respects except the outcome of interest (dependent variable), where they vary. KAPLAN.
What are Mill’s problems with the method of difference with Small-N and Medium-N experimentation?
- Things in the real world are rarely so neat
- Independent and dependent variables often cannot be treated as a dichotomous variable. There might be suitable differences in degree.
- No single cause could jump out of the analysis. Causal factors at work could be multiple. Hard to distinguish between major and minor causes.
- Limited range of applicability. We do not know if X5 is sufficient to cause a revolution at another time period or country.
What is Mill’s method of agreement with Small-N and Medium-N experimentation?
- Looks for a single independent variable that remains constant across the two cases with the same result.
- No variation on the dependent variable (controversial to other scholars).
Why is the lack of variation on the dependent variable with Small-N and Medium-N experimentation controversial?
- By choosing cases with similar values for the dependent variable we are guilty of selection bias.
- But if we are trying to understand some phenomena like Revolution and theory-build, this selection might make sense.
What are some of the problems with the method of agreement?
- It helps us to eliminate possible causes more than identifying the main cause. It opens the possibility that another factor could be ignored.
- There might be many common independent variables that could tell us which arguments are wrong but don’t reveal which arguments are right.
- We can eliminate necessary causes but cannot conclude about relationships of a probabilistic nature.
- Selection issues on the dependent variable.
What are single case studies?
- Sample sizes equal to 1
- Helpful in elucidating a causal mechanism through observing cases over time or paying attention to variation within the case.
- Generalization to a field would be problematic.
- All case studies are inherently comparative.
- The case studies should be theoretically motivated.
- Selection of the case should not be random.
What are tenants of a typical case?
- The most usual case for a particular population with maximum representation.
- Allows for a better exploration of the causal mechanism.
- Helps to identify and understand key phenom aspects as they are manifest under ordinary circumstances.
- In mixed methods approaches, it assumes that there is a pattern found within a Large-N study that requires a case study to dig deeper into a causal mechanism.
What are tenants of a least-likely or hard case?
- Extreme, deviant, or atypical cases.
- The most useful case for in-depth analysis
- Helps to detect flaws in an assumed theory
- Representativeness issue
