Intro to Political Science
The ability to influence an event or outcome that allows the agent to achieve an objective and/or to influence another agent to act in a manner in which the second agent, on its own, would not choose to act.
Power
An abstract concept that is specifically chosen to explain a given phenomenon.
A construct
A set of rules known and shared by the community, that structure interactions in specific ways.
Institutions
This is the group of people who have a say in choosing the leader___
This is the subset whose support is necessary to keep the leader in power___
1. Selectorate
2. Winning coalition
1. In a study, this is the potential cause of a phenomenon
2. This is the outcome we are seeking to explain
1. Independent variable
2. Dependent variable
The attribute states have when they, in actuality, carry out the tasks of providing security, extraction, and rule-making.
Sovereignty
A standardized set of techniques for collecting and analyzing qualitative or quantitative data
The scientific method
An interaction in which two or more actors must choose outcomes that make one better off at the expense of another. It involves allocating a fixed sum of value between different actors.
Bargaining
This type of leader is most likely to implement public goods over private goods to keep support.
Democratic
This is a variable that is held constant in a study to prevent it from affecting the outcome.
Control variable
A set of systematically interrelated constructs and propositions intended to explain and predict a phenomenon or behavior of interest, within certain boundary conditions and assumptions.
Theory
A statement proposing a specific relationship between the phenomena.
A hypothesis
These are obstacles to cooperation that occur when actors have an incentive to collaborate, but each acts with the expectation that the other will pay the cost of cooperation.
Collective action problems
Leaders with a __ winning coaltion and __ selectorate typically stay in power for only short periods of time.
large/large
A study finds that democracies are less likely to go to war with each other because leaders are constrained by public opposition to conflict.
What type of variable is "public opposition to conflict"
mediating variable
What are the levels of analysis in IR?
International level- Representatives of states
Domestic level- Subnational actors; politicians, business and labor groups, voters
Transnational level- Groups whose members span borders; MNCs, terrorist organizations, transnational advocacy groups
This process turns abstract ideas like “democracy” into measurable variables
Operationalization
These three reasons are why bargaining may fail and war may occur.
1. unknown information/uncertainty- incentive to bluff
2. commitment problems- can't trust future promises
3. Issue indivisibility- can't split the issue
A regime with a small winning coalition and small selectorate is typically this type.
Monarchy or Junta
Foreign aid tends to increase economic growth, but the amount of aid provided influences how strong that effect is.
What type of variable would "amount of foreign aid" be?
Moderating variable
A group of people with a sense of unity based on the importance of the group attributes to a shared trait or custom.
A nation
A relationship in which changes in one variable appear when there are changes in another variable.
Correlation
In a situation where two states could cooperate for mutual gain but face incentives to act in their own self-interest due to fear and mistrust, each independently chooses to act against cooperation. This is an example of what?
The Prisoner's Dilemma
This is why a leader would want to have a small winning coalition
Private goods are more valuable and concentrated- easier to keep WC happy
A political scientist is studying what causes war. He finds that when war has occured, the average cost of electrivity world wide also increased. He, incorrectly, deduced that high electrictiy prices must cause war.
What type of variable is electricity prices?
Spurious variable