Transcript Comparative Politics: A Global Introduction by Michael J. Sodaro, contributions by Nathan J.

Comparative Politics: A Global
Introduction
by Michael J. Sodaro,
contributions by Nathan J. Brown
(2006 Edition); and Dean W.
Collinwood, Joseph L. Klesner
and Timothy D. Sisk (2008 Ed.)
This 2008 Sodaro Third Edition is Presented for
Political Science Instruction
by Angela Oberbauer, M.A.
Updated 2011
Part I: Chapter 1. Comparative
Politics: What is it? Why Study it?
» Comparative Politics examines political
realities in countries all over the world.
» It Looks at the many ways governments
operate and the ways people behave in
political life.
» The relevance of government as a primary
topic.
» Governments around the globe play a central
role to decisions made on humanity, from
science and the economy, to public health
and the environment.
How can Governments make war or negotiate
peace?
» Governments fight crime or breed
corruption.
» They can grant human rights or silence
opposing voices.
» Governments are constituted in
numerous ways; can have a wide
variety of procedures, and operations.
» Therefore, Sodaro suggests, they
occupy a prominent place in the study
of comparative politics.
Individuals in government leadership roles are
also studied in comparative politics because,
Sodaro writes: “It matters who governs!” (p.6):
» Who are they?
» Why do they seek political power?
» How do they behave once they have
risen to peak positions of governmental
authority?
» What policies do they choose, and go
about implementing them?
Why are the People that are governed in
different countries also studied?
» the ways ordinary people behave in their interactions
with governments.
» How people can hold their leaders accountable for
their actions
» Are the people willing or unwilling to endure the most
extreme forms of tyranny?
» Can they vote and participate in political life, join
organizations?
» Sodaro asks further, do some of the people, or many
withdraw into apathy for politics and toward
government in general?
» Do they cooperate with one another for mutual
benefit, or are they uncompromising, confrontational,
and act out violently over conflicts?
Therefore, Comparative Politics examines such
specific things as:
» How governments are structured: their
governmental institutions.
» How they function, including different
forms of democracy and various forms
of non-democratic government.
» How governments interact with their
populations in pursuing community
goals, e.g. health care, reducing
unemployment, dealing with conflicts
relevant to political, economic and
social issues: emphasis on “public
policy”.
Further:
» How political leaders and the population behave in
politics:
» e.g. the ideas they have about politics.
» the ways they participate in political life through
political mechanisms as elections, parties, interest
groups, and other modes of political activity.
» Focus is on: “elite and mass political behavior”, and
includes political ideologies and political participation.
» How political leaders and the mass public think and feel
about politics, and how these attitudes affect their
behavior, known as “political culture.”
» What does the American Political Culture believe in?
» liberties, rights, political equality,
» individualism, capitalism, property, universal
suffrage, democracy, equal opportunity, and pluralism.
Who makes up the “Mass Publics?”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Political issues have low salience.
People focus attention on concrete issues,
have minimal grasp of abstract political
concepts, and don’t have constraint
knowledge.
Interest/political knowledge is short-term.
Fundamental beliefs are stable, but can be
volatile in short-term political opinions.
Content of beliefs is often inaccurate.
Who makes up the “Elites?”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Have relatively high levels of interest and
involvement in political life; hold positions
of political responsibility.
Elites communicate their beliefs to others.
They influence the Mass Publics.
Have relatively high levels of constraint
knowledge, accuracy, complexity.
Emphasis is on consistency, however, Elites
can have conflicting opinions among
themselves.
A Global Introduction:
1. Countries:
•
•
•
•
Chapters (chps) 16 - 23 devoted to specific
countries.
Chps. 1 - 15 present considerable information about:
Afghanistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Turkey,
among others.
We will continually compare the United States
throughout the semester with other countries.
Also biographical profiles of world leaders: important
to political developments in their countries and their
political leadership styles (p.8).
2. Concepts:
• We not only want to examine relevant facts
concerning the country’s history, political
institutions, public opinion, and political
system, we must also pay close attention to
the ways “general political processes and
concepts” apply to them: e.g. “democracy”,
“power”, “the state”, “nationalism”, ideology”,
“political culture”, and “political economy”.
3. Critical Thinking is about?
---How to think about politics and how to analyze
politics in a logical and systematic manner. (p. 9)
Important Elements to Critical Thinking Are?
• Definition: Definitional clarity is especially
necessary in politics, e.g. socialism, liberalism,
democracy, because they are often misused or
misunderstood.
Elements important to Critical Thinking,
continued:
• Description: to describe political phenomena, e.g.
“checks and balances”, or “separation of powers”.
• Explanation: “Why” do things happen the way they
do? Sodaro explains following:
Political Scientists make generalization about the
phenomena they try to understand as “theories”;
or “hypotheses” that suggest a “cause-and-effect
relationship between things.
Plus: “Testing” the generalizations against the hard facts
of reality to determine whether they are true or false, or
whether they are true under some conditions but not in
others (p. 8)
Elements to Critical Thinking continued:
• Prediction: The realities of human behavior
and political life are so varied that political
scientists have very little ability to foretell
what will happen over the near term, let
alone the long term (Soldaro, p. 9)
However, political scientists observe trends and
patterns, or suggest tentatively what broad
tendencies are possible or even probable in
various aspects of political life, assuming that
certain conditions hold (p. 9)
Critical Thinking Elements continued:
• Prescription: Soldaro asks, “Can Political
Scientists prescribe remedies to the political
problems besetting the nations of the world?”
And he answers: “Yes and No”.
Recommendations may be a better word, if
followed, may increase the probability of a
desirable outcome at some indeterminate
point in time (p.10).
Therefore, critical-thinking skills assist you as a
student and show you how political scientists
as researchers study comparative politics in
accordance with scientific rules and methods.
Differences between Comparative
Politics and International Politics
 Comparative Politics: examines political activities within
individual countries.
Focus: on each country’s “internal Politics, government
structures, public policy, political leaders.
 International Politics: concerns relations “between
countries”.
Focus: is on the “external relationships” of individual
countries: e.g. Diplomacy, international law, international
economic relations, war, and peacemaking.
This area of investigation aims at explaining how these
relationships work and they seek to provide us with a more
theoretical understanding of the processes of international
politics in general (p. 10-11).
What is Globalization?
 Definition: Globalization refers to the growing
interconnectedness of governments, non-state
organizations [corporations, multinational-corporations,
financial institutions], and populations throughout the
world utilizing political, economic, technological, cultural,
environmental, and other forms of interactions.
e.g. Global economy, international trade, economic
exchange; The World Trade Organization with over
153 member countries as of July 2008:
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/tif_e.htm
Globalization Affects Economic Activities:

Why may some people, states, industries be hurt and strongly affected by
Certain Economic Interactions?
--Powered by the Internet [today] people/corporations can move inventories,
jobs, and money around the world quickly (p. 16-17).
--When global investors pull their money out of countries with struggling
economies, the results can be catastrophic for employees, businesses, and
governments in those countries:
More examples:
e.g. Collapse of the state-dominated economies of the Soviet Union and the
communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and
Africa switching from Statism Economies/Command Economies [statecentered economies that support supply oriented system, State control of
production and distribution of goods, state regulates the market and the actions
of firms and households, and protects firms from external competition], over to
Market Economies [Every private actor/household controls own factors of
productionland, labor, capital to maximize profit; the system is demand
oriented; the market stabilizes itself based on supply and demand, State
regulation is minimal.
Globalization affects economic activities, continued:
 Becoming Market economies expanded their international trade.
 What does all this have to do with the Study of Comparative Politics?
--Governments around the world are also caught up in the globalization
process: active promoters of Int’l trade, sources of jobs, unemployment
compensation, retraining, and other forms of assistance to those whose
livelihood is jeopardized by global economic activity.
--Further, Sodaro points out, it therefore matters who governs (p. 17)
--Political leaders will deal with these issues in different ways, then
their decisions become public policy.
--Developing countries are especially hard hit by global economic
tendencies: poverty, lack of natural resources, exploited labor
conditions.
The International Monetary Fund [and the World Bank]: loans to
developing countries with stringent conditions on the recipient
governments---put domestic finances in order, cut budget deficits by
raising taxes or reducing government spending, etc. (p. 18-19).
Globalization and International Security:
 What is International Security?
--The pursuit to control Nuclear proliferation:
How? Through the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in
1968, obligates states that sign this treaty and do not yet
have nuclear weapons, to pledge that they will not acquire
them. Israel, Pakistan and India never signed the NPT
(p. 20). North Korea signed the NPT in 1985, but Kim
Jong Il is abrasively boosting about North Korea’s nuclear
goals and abilities.
--Pursuit to stop the spread of Chemical and Biological
Weapons
--The pursuit to stop terrorist activities.
Explain Global Elements that may influence
Environmental Sustainability.
 Rise in Industrial emissions.
 The destruction of rain forests
 The release of greenhouse gases like: carbon dioxide and
methane have increased concerns about global warming.
 The Kyoto Protocol 1997, 150 countries:
 The Protocol obliges them to reduce the emission of six
greenhouse gases by a global average of 5 percent of 1990 levels
by 2008-2012 (see page 21).
 The U.S. produces one-fourth of world’s greenhouse gas
emissions, and should cut 7 percent emissions. U.S. has
not yet signed on.
Explain Global Interconnectedness:
 Culture: Pattern of beliefs, values, attitudes, and lifestyles that people
tend to share:
 Telecommunications: the internet, “digital divide” in computer literacy
and Web access between rich and poor countries.
 The media: Global television networks: CNN and the BBC transmit
real-time information. Also cable or satellite TV, Al-Jazeera based in
Qatar broadcast news and politically sensitive discussions that some
countries would censor.
 Refugee flows have intensified in recent years.
 Public health issues assuming a more important global scope: e.g.
HIV/AIDS resulting in more than 2 million deaths annually.
 Law enforcement, especially of drug trafficking, organized crime and
terrorism crossing into and affecting many countries of the world (pp
21-22).
Democratization: is the transition from non-democratic to
democratic forms of government?
 Western Europe: after World War II: Greece, Portugal, and Spain.
 The Third Wave:
 Latin America in the 1970, 80s and after: Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile,
Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua in the 1990s.
 The Caribbean: Haiti in December 1991.
 Central and Eastern Europe with the end of the Cold War 1989-91: Poland,
East Germany, Çzechoslovakia became the Czech Republic and Slovakia;
Romania, and Bulgaria, and Hungary.
 The Soviet Union, with the end of the Cold War 1991 broke into 15
independent states.
 Africa, democratic developments in 1980s and 90s, but with little success.
 Asia: Turkey (Islamic country with both European and Asiatic roots)
returned to electoral democracy in 1983 after years of military rule. Also
India in 1975, Pakistan 1988-1999 when military coup took power;
Philippines 1986 revolution and replace Ferdinand Marcos; Indonesia,
President Suharto’s resignation 1998; the Republic of China (Taiwan) 2000.
 The Fourth Wave:
 The Arab Spring 2010/2011: Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc.
revolutionary movements utilizing “social media” to rid dictators and achieve
democracies. Go to “References/Resources” in class website for coverage.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
The Declaration’s thirty articles begin by
proclaiming that “all human beings are born free
and equal in dignity and rights”….pp. 24-25.
However, many democratic governments that have
signed this document (or not) abuse its principles.
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights-html
Does being a Democracy guarantee peaceful
behavior?
 Does globalization help or hinder the cause of democracy?
--Thomas Friedman says yes because those who want to invest in other
countries are less attracted to a nondemocratic country without stable
governmental institutions.
--Benjamin Barber (1996) argues the world is torn between two
contending forces: “Jihad”--he uses as a blanket designation for
groups and movements that reject international cooperation,
technological advancement, the market economy, and modernization as
a whole, versus the “McWorld” forces, which threatens to immerse the
world into a profit-driven consumerism, reducing it to a “homogenous
global theme park” where democratic governments turn their back on
the public interest and the common good. And to avoid combat by
these two forces, Barber calls for the creation of a “global civil
society” dedicated to promoting greater citizen participation in the
affairs of government throughout the world (p. 26)
Democracy and globalization, continued
--Zbgniew Brzezinski (1994), former national security advisor to
President Jimmy Carter warns: global spread of Western (especially
American) economic and cultural influences may actually undermine
the appeal of democracy around the world unless the West infuses its
democratic message with positive moral values. However, Brzezinski
argues if the Western popular culture conveys little more than an
obsession with greed, sexual gratification, and other forms of selfindulgence, then millions of people across the globe offended by these
tendencies may turn their backs on democracy, ignoring its core values
of intellectual freedom, the rule of law, scientific rationality, and
compromise (p. 26-27).
What are Principal Purposes of Studying
Comparative Politics
as outlined by Sodaro?







To widen our understanding of politics in other countries.
To increase our appreciation of the advantages and disadvantages of our own
political system and to enable us to lean from other countries.
To develop a more sophisticated understanding of politics in general, including
the nature of democracy and non-democratic governments, the relationships
between governments and people, and other concepts and processes.
To help us understand the linkages between domestic and international affairs.
To help us see the relationship between politics and such field as science and
technology, the environment, public health, law, business, religion, ethnicity,
and culture.
To enable us to become more informed citizens: form our own political
opinions, participate in political life, evaluate the actions and proposals of
political leaders, and make our own political decisions and electoral choices.
To sharpen our critical thinking skills by applying scientific logic and coherent
argumentation to our understanding of political phenomena (p. 27-28).
Chapter 2: Major Topics of Comparative Politics
(pages 31 - 59)

What is Politics: Politics is a process (an activity) in which individuals exercise
“power” to influence “change.” Changes can be laws, benefits, restrictions, etc.
--What is causing individuals to pursue this activity of “politics”?
--What assets make individuals “powerful”?
--Who are these individuals trying to reach to make change?
--What is meant by “change”?
--What results when “change” has been accomplished?
--What kind of governmental system is a democracy? Where the people have
the right to determine who governs them: Direct Democracy; Representative
Democracy. Popular Sovereignty = people have ultimate authority over
government.
--What kind of governmental system is Authoritarianism? Authoritarian
governmental systems place the governing authorities above the people.
e.g. Dictatorships, Totalitarian, Theocratic “Regimes” (forms of government).
The Political Processes: Bargaining, Coercion, nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs), political parties, interest groups, political participation, political
behavior, elite behavior, mass publics behavior, attitudes about politics, what is
“rational choice theory” (p. 55)?
Political Processes: differences between Democracies and
Authoritarian Regimes.
What type of governmental system are individuals dealing with to achieve
change? Democratic or authoritarianism? What are the goals of different
governmental systems? How do these different systems approach solving
conflicts?
 Bargaining: a process in which individuals and groups pursue their goals and
deal with their conflicts through direct negotiation or indirect forms of
exchange (p. 35). Usually a peaceful process.
--Democracies: involve compromise, deal-making, forms of give-and-take.
-- Democracies tend to favor bargaining: e.g. voting process
--less in Authoritarian regimes, however, a dictator may seek to gain the
people’s agreement by providing economic and social benefits---as exchange
for the populations acceptance of the regime.
 Coercion: the use of force or the threat to use force to achieve a certain result.
--Democracies are based on law and its enforcement: the police, the courts,
penal systems, laws, effective enforcement, extreme applications of force
the police, all of these are coercive institutions.
--Authoritarian regimes are strongly oriented toward coercion: through
outright force, intimidation and terror to stay in power, using the military,
secret police.
Differences how Intermediate Organizations
involved in the political processes are used:
• Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), political parties, interest
groups.
---In democracies, main role of parties is to recruit candidates that can
win elections, run government, and make policy.
Interest groups are free to speak up for vaious segments of the
population who want to influence government to make decisions that
will benefit the “group”.
---In authoritarian regimes, political parties and interest groups tend to be
instruments of the government’s domination over the society.
• Political participation depends upon Elite and Mass Public
structures within a regime. (see slides 8 & 9).
Explaining Political behavior: Rational Choice
Theory/Rational Actor Theory

Economic behavior: individuals act and are motivated in their economic
behavior by material self-interest: strive to acquire money, other possessions
aimed at enhancing their material well-being to “maximize their
Utilities”. Goal, to have a net gain from their useful goods rather than a net
loss, therefore, considered “economic rationality”.
 Political behavior: individuals act and are motivated in their political
behavior by: voting or financially supporting candidates they feel will secure
their values and those of their group, or the welfare of society. Information is
often received from sources such as public opinion polling in Democracies.
---Politicians may act and are motivated by power, or altruistic reasons
to improve laws, disparities or injustices in society, or want to totally reform a
political system and the governmental structures.
 Authoritarian regimes, even without competitive elections and sources of
information available to the public, can experience demonstrations and
discontent from their societies: e.g. Poland’s “Solidarity Movement”, the
Ukraine 2004, Iran in 2009.
Therefore, “…rational choice theory today maintains that individuals behave
in politics on the basis of self-interest, seeking to increase their expected
gains and reduce their expected costs and risks on the basis of personal
preferences and priorities” (p. 55).
Name and Explain Five Main Sources of Political Conflict?
 Power: Who has the power in society? Governmental institutions:


executive, legislative, judicial, non-democratic authoritarian structures, e.g.
dictatorships, totalitarian.
Resources: economic, natural resources  explain which?
Identity Political socialization: family, religion, media, peers, school.
----Demographics education, gender, age, race, ethnicity, wealth, class,
“ethnonationalsim”, social cleavages: (see tables 2.2 p.39, 2.3 p. 40, 2.4 p.47)
 polarizing cleavages (social divisions), when the factors composing one’s social
identity tend to pull in the same political direction,
 cross-cutting cleavages, when the various factors that make up an individual’s
social identity tend to pull that person in different political directions,


Ideas: Political Philosophies, “ideology” are a coherent set of ideas and
guidelines that defines what the nature and role of government should be and
prescribes the main goals the community should pursue through political
action(p. 51).
Values: are principles, spiritual or moral, ideals, or qualities of life that people
favor for their own sake.
Game Theory:
 Game Theory provides a conceptual approach to
understanding how humans behave in conflict situations in
general.
 Zero-sum game: A two-sided game in which one player’s
loss is the other player’s gain in equal measure.
 Variable-sum games, e.g.: Outcomes can be beneficial
for all players.
 Positive-sum game: your gain is my gain
 Negative-sum game: if we do not cooperate, or other factors
conspire against us (we lose a war or economic downturn)
 Prisoner’s Dilemma: A mixture of zero-sum, positive-sum, and
negative-sum outcomes (see p.56)
Chapter 3: Critical Thinking About Politics
Analytical Techniques of Political Science--The Logic of Hypothesis Testing (pp.60-97)
 Ought-Questions: What ought to be done about political reality?
Because one of the purposes of studying comparative politics is to
decide what we ought to do about the world we live in through political
action, comparative politics is at least in part, a “policy science.” It
helps us devise and select governmental policies aimed at improving
things. Therefore, comparative politics can be used to service
“prescriptive and meliorative” purposes, helping us choose the right
policy prescriptions with a view to making the world a better place.
---Value judgments are evaluations that we make on the basis of
values, standards, or ideals (political philosophies), thus reflect personal
preferences about what is moral or immoral, good or bad,
---Normative Political Theory: principle purpose is to think
coherently about the ultimate aims of politics and to think through the
possible consequences of alternative courses of political action-therefore, make value judgments.
---Public policy analysis: primarily concerned with ought-questions,
but also employs empirical analysis to assess the impact of policy
decisions. It defines governmental goals and outcomes of policy.
continued
 What Ought-Questions and what Is-Questions: Answer by describing
and explaining the what, the how, and the why of political realities.
---through Empirical analysis: is centered on facts. It seeks to
discover, describe, and explain facts and factual relationships, to the
extent that the facts are knowable.
It is not concerned with our values, ideals or preferences, but based on
what we can experience or perceive through out senses, namely facts.
Also called Value-free political science.
---Clarity in defining Concepts: a word, a term, or a label that applies
to a whole class or category of phenomena or ideas.
---Description, Observing, Collecting, Comparing: study things
systematically involving the Comparative Method (p. 63).
---Explanation and Generalization: if we want to comprehend the
significance of discrete facts or events in political life, we must
integrate them into larger processes or frameworks, deepen our
understanding of general processes and tendencies to sharpen our
understanding of specific events at hand; therefore understanding the
relationship between general concepts and explanations:
Empirical Analysis: the quest for understanding through
close observation and broad generalization

Variables: is something that can vary or change. It can take different forms
or be a changeable characteristic of a phenomenon. Example:
Why voters make the choices they do?
---SYSTEMATICALLY GATHER INFORMATION ON ALL POSSIBLE VARIABLES
AND ANALYZE THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE VARIOUS CHARACTERISTICS
OF THE ELECTORATE ACCOUNT FOR THE POPULATION’S ELECTORAL
CHOICES.

Dependent and Independent Variables:
The dependent variable is the variable we are are most interested in
examining; it is the main object of our study. It is the effect or outcome that
is influenced or caused by another variable or variables.
It is the variable whose value changes in response to changes in the value of
other variables.
The Independent Variable: is the factor or characteristic that influences or
causes the dependent variable. In cause-and-effect relationships, it is the
causal or explanatory variable. Changes in the value of the independent
variable may produce changes in the value of the dependent variable.
Empirical Analysis, (cont’d)

Correlations (or association): is a relationship in which two or more variables
change together. Correlations do not conclusively demonstrate causality, all
a correlation does is suggest or imply that there may be a cause-and-effect
relationship between the variables under observation:
Examples: Variables are positively correlated when they vary in the same
direction (they increase together or decrease together). Variables are
inversely (or negatively) correlated when they vary in opposite or reverse
directions: one variable increase and the other variable decreases, or vice versa.
Intervening variables are located in between the independent and dependent
variables p.66. Spurious correlation occurs when two variables appear to be
directly linked in a cause-and-effect relationship but in fact (a) there is no
causal linkage whatsoever, or (b) they are linked indirectly by some other
causative variable or variables, or may be a matter of pure coincidence with no
causal factors at work (see pages 63, 64, 65, and 66).
Empirical Analysis, (cont’d)

What are Laws? A law is a regularly occurring association (or
correlation) between two or more variables.
What is Deterministic Law? Whenever X occurs, Y always occurs. (e.g.
laws of gravity, or Albert Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2, is a law
specifying that energy always occurs as the product of mass times the square
of the speed of light (Sodaro, p. 70).
What is Probabilistic law? Whenever A occurs, B sometimes occurs; in
other words, occasionally we can calculate the degree of probability with
which B is likely to occur. (e.g. weather predictions, or human behavior).
Therefore, Prediction of the future in the social sciences is thus suggestive or
Probabilistic in nature.
In economics: the law of supply and demand.
In political science, Duverger’s law stipulates that an electoral system
in which the voters choose competing candidates by a simple majority
(e.g. the highest number of votes) in a single ballot tends to produce a
two-party system.
Therefore, the principal ways of explaining political realities scientifically are by
formulating theories and hypotheses.
Empirical Analysis, (cont’d)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Theories:
In its broadest sense, theory simply refers to thinking about politics as
opposed to practicing it (as an abstract intellectual exercise).

Making generalizations about politics (formally or informally).

General principles or abstract ideas -- that may not necessarily be true
in actual fact (p. 68).
Theory can mean “normative theory”: value-centered political philosophy
(or political thought).
In natural and social sciences: theory most frequently means
“generalizations”, that seek to explain, and perhaps predict, or
relationships among variables (Explanatory theory) p. 71-72.
Parsimonious Theories: a theory that explains a vast range of phenomena
in very succinct terms (p. 72)--very few such theories in Political Science.
Middle-range theories: explain specific categories, or segments, of
political reality. They are sets of statements and hypotheses that are strung
together to explain a particular subfield of political reality: e.g.
Democratic theory describes how democracies are supposed to work; Elite
Theory describes the roles that political elites play, their social backgrounds,
and their relationships with the masses; Rational choice Theory explains
political behavior by regarding virtually all individuals as “rational actors”
who seek to increase their personal gains and minimize their losses or risks.
Empirical Analysis, (cont’d
 Hypotheses: is an assumption or supposition that needs to
be tested against relevant evidence (p. 73).
 Explanatory hypotheses: posit a cause-and-effect relationship
between dependent and independent variables that can be tested
empirically (I.e., against factual evidence).
 By testing hypotheses empirically, we submit them to a reality
check:
 Look at all the available facts to see if they substantiate or
contradict the relationships we propose in our hypotheses.
 Scientific Generalization and Practical Politics: Explanatory
theories and hypotheses in political science greatly enhance our
understanding of the real world of politics (p. 74). They can also
help us figure out our own positions on the political problems of
our times.
Debates include theories.
Empirical Analysis, (cont’d
Models: are a simplified representation of reality in descriptive or
abstract form. They enable us to understand some aspect of
reality, be it the economy,by representing some of its essential
features in a simplified or idealized form (p. 74).
Paradigm:
1) is a prime example of a particular phenomenon or pattern. E.g.
The U.S. system of government is a “paradigm of a Presidential
system or democracy.
2) a paradigm is also a particular way of looking at phenomena,
e.g. a particular form of intellectual inquiry or a specific approach
to scientific investigation (p.77).
Logical Fallacies, pp. 78-79.
Read: The logic of hypothesis testing, pp. 80-97).