Comparative politics focuses on politics within nations International relations focuses on politics between nations Mutually exclusive requires that it not be possible to assign Collectively exhausted that we have a place to categorize Ch 1 any single case to more than one category every entity that is observed Comparative politics and international relations are collectively exhausted The line between both of these definitions can be blurred You cannot understand the European Union economic policies without understanding the policies within nation states So International politics and Comparative Politics overlap when involving revolutions political economies and environmental politics to name a few Ch 2 Falsifiable there must be some imaginable observations that could falsify or refute them and they must be potentially testable Falsification an approach to science in which scientists generate a testable hypothesis from theories designed to explain phenomena of interest Model a simply tentative explanation of observed phenomena used to better understand the world Models need not be accurate in every aspect sometimes referred to as theory explanation or story Theory a set of logically consistent statements that tell us why the things that we observe occur A theory is sometimes referred to as a model or an explanation mechanisms are unchanging in the sense that if X causes Y today then it will also cause Y tomorrow and the next day and so on Critical test allows the analyst to use observation to distinguish between two or more competing explanations of the same phenomenon Uniformity of nature asserts that nature s operating Why must scientific statements be falsifiable science relies on criticism and the thing that allows criticism is the possibility for it to be wrong The thing that distinguishes science from nonscience is that it is falsifiable meaning that there could be something that could refute them What must be true for political science to be a science It must accumulate knowledge over time and be a process Steps in the scientific process 1 Systematic observation questions 2 Experiment Game theory model regression anaysis 3 Formulate hypothesis implications 4 Measurement 5 Observe test evaluate 6 Confirm reformulate Mill s Method of Difference compares cases that disagree in regard to the phenomenon to be explained Also known as the comparative method involves the systematic search for the necessary without it it cannot occur and sufficient with it it must occur causes of political phenomena The comparative method comprises the Method of Agreement and the method of Difference observations of the world and then use these observations to develop general laws and theories about why certain political phenomena occur Political scientists who employ these methods collect The point is to identify the causes of political events three different type of questions we ask in political science 1 evaluative question how should the world look 2 descriptive questions how does the world look ex Should the US go to war with Iran Should the president have the power to declare war Should the rich be taxed a a higher rate than the poor also normative questions Ex How many chambers does the Swedish legislature have How powerful is the president of France How many parties are in the UK 3 Explanatory questions why does the world look this way Ex Why does an event occur What causes some event Why are some sates democratic but other authoritarian Why do dictatorships become democracies Necessary conditions is a circumstance in whose absence the phenomenon in question cannot occur Ex Ethnic homogeneity is not a necessary condition for democracy Because Belgium is a democracy despite being ethnically diverse Ex A parliamentary system is not a necessary condition for democracy The US is a democracy despite having a presidential system Sufficient condition a circumstance in whose presence the phenomenon in question must occur Ex If you found a nonwealthy democracy you can conclude that wealth is not a sufficient for democracy Outline Ch 3 What is Politics balance of power between citizens and states Also when citizens will take action against the state when states will respond positively to the demands of their citizenry and how citizens will rebel against the state Exit you accept a negative change in your environment and you alter your behavior We use the EVL Exit voice loyalty Game to analyze the Voice to try to change the environment back to its original condition Loyalty you accept the fact that your environment has changed and you make no change to your behavior Game theory a fundamental tool for analyzing strategic situations Strategic situation in this the choices of one actor depend on the choices made by other actors Game a situation in which an individuals ability to achieve her goals depends on the choices made by other actors of the citizen uses voice then the state has to choose whether to respond positively or to ignore it If the state decides to ignore the citizens voice then the citizen has to decide whether to exit or to remain loyal possible outcomes turns aka this is the game that looks like a family tree payoff in a game indicates how the players value each of the extensive form games make the choices sequentially take has choice nodes a point where players must choose an action and branches represent the actions that can be taken at each choice node It ends with a terminal node a place where the game ends each represents a possible outcome of the game game tree the entire specification of choice nodes and branches that comprise an extensive form game normal strategic form game help us examine strategic situation where players make decisions at the same time aka the game with the boxes either side do not know what the other sides doing till its done players make choices simultaneously Backward induction is used to solve extensive form game It is the process of reasoning backward from the end of the game or situation to the beginning in order to determine an optimal course of action Finds subgame perfect equilibrium SPE The player will choose the action that provides them with the highest payoff given how they expect the other players to respond farther down the game tree The final choice node has the citizen deciding whether to exit or remain loyal Two implications for voice to work 1 The citizen must have a credible exit threat E 0 2 The state must be dependent on the citizen L
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