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American Government > Part 1: Thinking Like A Political Scientist > Flashcards

Part 1: Thinking Like A Political Scientist Flashcards

1
Q

Politics

A

the authoritative and legitimate struggle for limited resources or precious rights and privileges within the context of government, the economy, and society

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2
Q

Polity

A

a political organization that includes actors such as individuals, groups, corporations, unions, and politicians

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3
Q

Zero-sum situation

A

a benefit for a particular political actor equates to a loss for other political actors

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4
Q

Struggle

A

a chaotic and painful clash of entrenched interests

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5
Q

Government

A

the collection of institutions and people who occupy them that is recognized as the legitimate authority to make decisions regarding the whole public in a defined geographic territory

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6
Q

Institution

A

an established organization, custom, or practice formed for a specific public purpose

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7
Q

Political Imagination

A

the ability to envision new and creative ways to make the political system work for ordinary people

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8
Q

Power

A

the ability to prevail in struggles over resources, rights, or privileges

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9
Q

The First Dimension of Power

A

formal decision-making

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10
Q

The Second Dimension of Power

A

mobilization of bias

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11
Q

Mobilization of Bias

A

biases/preferential treatment of one side while ignoring the other

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12
Q

The Third Dimension of Power

A

preference shaping

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13
Q

Preference Shaping

A

controlling another’s perception and maintaining power through systemic manipulation of information

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14
Q

Pluralism

A

various interest groups compete for political influence/power

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15
Q

Hyper-pluralism

A

the government has been captured by the demands of interest groups and is being influenced to the detriment of effective growth or change

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16
Q

Interest-group Liberalism

A

used interchangeably with the hyper-pluralism label

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17
Q

Elite Theory

A

highlights the power of a small and wealthy class of individuals (the power elite), as they are the decision-makers or are able to influence them to get their way

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18
Q

Theoretical Perspectives

A

concepts, definitions, and a body of scholarly literature developed over time

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18
Q

Public Policy

A

the results of decision making

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19
Q

Scientific Method

A

the systematic, logically driven process to gather information and make conclusions about natural and social phenomena

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19
Q

Steps of the Scientific Method

A
  • ask a question
  • research what others have learned about the question
  • formulate a hypothesis
  • conduct an experiment
  • collect and analyze data
  • communicate results
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20
Q

Empiricism/Empirical

A

basing a conclusion on careful verifiable observation and experience

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21
Q

Null Hypothesis

A

there is no relationship between two variables

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21
Q

Correlative or Correlational Hypothesis

A

two variables vary together

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21
Q

Directional Hypotheses

A

posit a direction to the relationship in question

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22
Q

Negative Relationship

A

the value of one variable decreases as the value of the other variable increases

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22
Q

Positive Relationship

A

the value of one variable increasing along with the value of another
variable

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23
Q

Casual Hypothesis

A

positing that at least some of the variance in one variable is being caused by the variance in the other variable (variables need to be connected)

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24
Q

Controlled Experiment

A

an experiment in which variables are controlled so that they do not affect a specific variable

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24
Q

Natural Experiment

A

the scientist does not control the variables, but natural processes or social events provide an opportunity for them to see the effect of a variable in action

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25
Q

Falsifiability

A

scientific knowledge claims are subject to be proven wrong

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25
Q

Untestable Claim

A

a theory that cannot be refuted

25
Q

Fallacy

A

an argument that is faulty, logically invalid, or deceptive

25
Q

Ad Hominem

A

“against the man”

happens when we attack who made the argument in an attempt to discredit what they said or wrote, instead of attacking the argument on its merits

26
Q

Reductive Fallacy

A

trying to address complex issues with simple solutions

27
Q

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

A

“after this, therefore because of this”

asserting that one thing caused another thing simply because it came first

28
Q

Non Sequitur

A

“it does not follow”

refers to an argument whose evidence and conclusion doesn’t match the original claim

29
Q

Appeal to Majority

A

when many people believe a claim to be true, so it is evidence of its truth

30
Q

Straw Man

A

distorting an opponent’s position by stating it in an oversimplified or extreme form, and then refuting the distorted position instead of the real one

31
Q

Red Herring

A

someone brings up a non-related issue to make their case

32
Q

Begging the Question

A

using evidence that is essentially the same as the claim (circular argument)

33
Q

Black/White Thinking

A

false dichotomy/dilemma

shrinking the world of possibilities down to two choices—one of which we favor—and insist that everyone must choose between them

34
Q

Ecological Fallacy

A

refers to making conclusions about a person based on aggregate data that is relevant to that person

35
Q

Aggregate Data

A

information compiled into summaries for
public reporting and cannot be used to make definitive statements about an individual

36
Q

Argument

A

a claim plus evidence leading to a conclusion

37
Q

Quantitative Evidence

A

numbers as evidence

38
Q

Warranted Inference

A

justified in accepting a conclusion or inference

39
Q

Qualitative Evidence

A

words as evidence

40
Q

Conditions of Warranted Inference

A
  • the reasons/evidence must be true
  • the conclusion must follow from the reasons/evidence (truth-preserving reasoning = validity)
40
Q

Assumptions

A

unstated premises that the person making the argument is taking for granted or is asking you to take for granted

41
Q

Progressivism

A

holds that the truth in human affairs is real and that we are on a never-ending journey towards it

42
Q

Dogmatism

A

a philosophy that says we have already arrived at the truth, so no new claims or evidence need to be entertained

43
Q

Relativism

A

posits that there is no ultimate truth, so there is no basis to reject one argument in favor of another

44
Q

Correlation Does Not, Necessarily, Equal Causation

A

making claims that suggest movement in one variable is causing movement in another or that one condition occurring with another condition means that one caused the other

45
Q

Appealing to Authority

A

can be a fallacy if the authority in question lacks credibility

46
Q

Argument by Analogy

A

linking or comparing two things to explain or clarify in an argument

47
Q

Slippery Slope

A

occurs when a person suggests that if we take one action, it will lead to a chain of disastrous events

48
Q

Overgeneralization

A

excessively vague or general statements (cognitive distortion)

49
Q

Hasty Generalization

A

making a generalization from an atypical example

50
Q

Central Tendency

A

the typical value among all those in a data sample

51
Q

Mean

A

average of a group of numbers

52
Q

Median

A

the middle value of a range of numbers

53
Q

Content Analysis

A

a systematic, replicable technique for compressing many words of text into fewer content categories based on explicit rules of coding

54
Q

Dichotomous Questions

A

has only two possible answers

55
Q

Multiple-Choice Questions

A

offers three or more defined choices

56
Q

Thermometer-Scale Questions

A

“feeling thermometers”

numeric rating scale from 0 to 100

57
Q

Likert-Response Scale

A

level of agreement

58
Q

Ranking-List Questions

A

rating an item’s importance from a list

59
Q

Open-Ended Questions

A

provides freedom for the respondent to structure the answer for themselves

60
Q

Push Poll

A

a survey with biased information designed to get the results the sponsoring organization or candidate is looking for

61
Q

Typology

A

a visual device that allows you to systematically classify types that have common characteristics

62
Q

Status Quo

A

“the situation as it is now”

63
Q

Ethos

A

the author’s credibility or trustworthiness

64
Q

Intrinsic Ethos

A

the author’s character and integrity

65
Q

Kairos

A

taking advantage of or even creating a perfect moment to deliver a particular message

65
Q

Extrinsic Ethos

A

the author’s credentials, reputation, or history with a subject

66
Q

Logos

A

logic, evidence, or factual data that is used to persuade the audience

67
Q

Pathos

A

the author’s appeal to the audience’s sense of identity, their self-interest, and their emotions

68
Q

The Four Contextual Features

A
  • race relations
  • inequality
  • immigration
  • corporate personhood

American Government (2 decks)

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