Study Guide Test 1 This study guide includes all of the questions from the study guide from blackboard all of the information from the slides in class as well as all of the definitions and additional information from the chapters 1 5 in the book that could be on the test GOOD LUCK Chapter 1 Political science is the study of human behavior involving coercion power of influence It is divided up into 4 subfields American Politics Comparative Politics International Relations and Public Policy 1 Comparative politics predominantly within countries The study of political phenomena that occur Most of the literature in comparative politics focus on political institutions mostly on the workings of democracy The major themes in comparative politics include state failure economic determinants of democracy cultural determinants of democracy benefits from democracy institutional design 2 International relations The study of political phenomena that occur predominantly between countries don t get international and comparative mixed up Difference between IR and comparative politics International Politics between deals with conflict foreign policy and international organizations Comparative Politics within deals with elections party systems executive legislative relations interest groups and legislatures Similarities Both deal with political economy and environmental politics Comparative Politics vs American Politics both focus on politics within countries American politics focuses on politics within the United States where comparative politics focuses on politics within countries more generally 3 Mutually exclusive basically means contradictory requires that it not be possible to assign any single case to more than one category unable to be both true at the same time 4 Collectively exhaustive that is observed implies that we have a place to categorize every entity 5 The definition of comparative politics with its complementary definition of international politics has one of the desirable features of all good science typologies in that it is logically exhaustive Still all good science typologies should also be mutually exclusive Comparative politics and IR are not mutually exclusive because many contemporary political issues contain healthy doses of both within country and between country factors As a consequence the line between the two is often blurred Chapter 2 1 falsifiable scientific statements must be falsifiable This means that they are potentially testable there must be some imaginable observation that could falsify or refute them Tautology a statement that is true by definition Concept a word used to describe a political entity Might range from concrete party s vote share to abstract party s ideology well defined precise agreed upon meaning height party s vote share ill defined vague argued over meaning individual s ideology democracy more likely in political science concepts are important because they allow us to communicate and reason precisely and accurately about political events They will never be perfect but we should always push our self toward more precision and clarity Conceptualization the process of refining and specifying concepts Model a tentative explanation of observed phenomena used to better understand the world Models need not be accurate in every respect A model is sometimes referred to as a theory explanation or story A model is an explanation of observed phenomena used to better understand the world the role of models is to provide tentative explanations of political events models serve as roadmaps to guide our understanding of the world answers to explanatory questions should come in the form of models 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 rational choice one common manner of theorizing in political science and especially comparative politics is called rational choice theory This approach focuses on the costs and the benefits of the actors involved Actors choose the alternative that yields the highest net benefit to build a rational choice theory 1 identify all relevant actors 2 identify all choices 3 make arguments assumptions about the costs and or benefits of the choices and 4 figure out which choice offers the greatest net benefit benefit minus cost Uniformity of Nature asserts that natures operating 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 2 Scientific statements must be falsifiable because it distinguishes science from non science Science is the quest for knowledge that relies on criticism The thing that allows for criticism is the possibility that our claims hypotheses and the like could be wrong 3 For political science to be a science it must meet the definition of a science Science is a method for provisionally understanding the world Science must accumulate knowledge and science helps answer explanatory questions which can motivate evaluative questions or inform answers to evaluative questions 4 Steps in the scientific process same as scientific method 7 5 Mill s Method of Difference compares cases that disagree in regard to the outcome to be explained 6 Steps in the scientific method 1 systematic observation observe the world and come up with a question or puzzle why did this occur 2 measurement 3 experiment game theory regression analysis come up with a theory or a model to explain the question 4 formulate hypothesis once we have a model then we deduce implications from the model other than those that we set out to explain 5 test hypothesis observe the world examine whether the implications of the model are consistent with observation 6 confirm rehypothesis retest evaluation verify or prove true or false 7 Evaluative normative questions how should the world look This is the way most people think about politics Should the US go to war with Iran Should women have the right to choose These are also normative questions Normative questions Most of political science does not concern itself directly with normative questions However a particular subfield of political science known as political philosophy or normative political theory does try to answer some of these questions about what ought to be Descriptive Questions how
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