Comparative Method
What is the difference between a dependent and independent variable in comparative political research?
Independent variables explain changes in dependent variables. The dependent variable is what we are trying to explain.
What is the difference between a procedural (minimalist) and substantive definition of democracy?
A procedural (minimalist) definition of democracy focuses on elections and formal democratic institutions, while a substantive definition considers civil liberties, representation, and participation.
What is the difference between a unicameral and bicameral legislature?
Unicameral legislatures have one chamber; bicameral legislatures have two (e.g., U.S. Congress: House and Senate).
What is the key distinction between presidential and parliamentary systems?
Presidential systems have a separately elected executive, while parliamentary systems have an executive accountable to the legislature.
According to Cheibub, Gandhi, and Vreeland (2010), what are the three basic types of dictatorships?
Monarchic, military, and civilian dictatorships.
What research design compares cases that are very different in most aspects but share a common outcome?
Most-Different-Systems (MDS) Design compares cases that differ on most variables but share an outcome.
Which theory explains democracy as a product of economic development?
Modernization Theory argues that economic development leads to democracy.
According to Max Weber, how is the modern state defined?
As the political organization that holds the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.
What process allows a legislature to remove a president in presidential systems?
Impeachment is the process through which a legislature removes a president from office.
What is a regime, and how did Tunisia’s regime change before and after the Arab Spring?
A regime is the set of rules and institutions for forming and running government. Tunisia shifted from a civilian dictatorship under Bourguiba, to a military dictatorship under Ben Ali, and after the Arab Spring became a semi-presidential democracy with the 2014 constitution.
Name two examples of qualitative data that a political scientist might use.
Examples of qualitative data include historical accounts, primary documents, ethnographic interviews, case studies, and archival research.
What is the term for the collapse of democracy and transition to an authoritarian regime?
Democratic Breakdown is when a democracy collapses into an authoritarian regime.
In a bicameral system, what (or who) does each chamber typically represent, and what are their likely origins in early democracies?
The lower chamber represents the general population and originated in assemblies of common citizens, while the upper chamber represents larger units like states or provinces and traces back to councils of elites or aristocracy.
What is a vote of no confidence, and how does it function differently from impeachment?
A vote of no confidence is when the legislature removes the government in a parliamentary system. Unlike impeachment, it removes the entire executive branch.
Which type of dictatorship is considered the most durable, and why?
Monarchic dictatorships, because ruling families share power, establish clear succession rules, and reduce elite conflict.
Why do scholars pay attention to deviant cases in comparative research?
Deviant cases are cases that do not fit expected patterns of a theory, which helps refine or challenge existing theories.
Do any of the measures we reviewed—Freedom House, DD, Polity, or V-Dem—classify any Central Asian states as democratic? Why or why not?
No. All four measures rate Central Asian states as non-democratic because elections lack genuine competition, incumbents rarely lose power, and core civil liberties are restricted. Polity and V-Dem may show variation in degree of authoritarianism, but none recognize the region’s regimes as true democracies.
In a proportional representation system, how are legislative seats allocated?
In proportional representation (PR), seats are distributed based on the percentage of votes a party receives.
In which system (parliamentary or presidential) do coalition governments tend to form, and why?
Coalition governments tend to form in parliamentary systems because no single party may win a majority, requiring cooperation.
What is authoritarian persistence, and name a country where this has occurred.
Authoritarian persistence refers to the ability of an authoritarian regime to remain in power, either by continuing the same government or transitioning to another form of authoritarianism. Example: China, North Korea, or Iran.
“How does federalism affect the quality of public services in Brazil and India?”
You have this RQ and now you need to write a literature review. List 3 assumptions that can serve as a skeleton of your literature review.
- Federalism varies in meaningful ways across Brazil and India that can be systematically compared.
- The concept of “quality of public services” can be defined and measured in a way that is valid across both countries.
- Federal arrangements are expected to have a causal influence on service quality, rather than service quality being driven solely by other factors (e.g., economic development or political culture).
If we test the hypothesis that citizens in democracies have more equality of opportunity than citizens in dictatorships, which measure of democracy—Freedom House or the DD index—would make the hypothesis more falsifiable, and why?
The DD index, because it uses a minimal definition of democracy based only on elections and turnover, keeping equality of opportunity separate. Freedom House already includes rights tied to opportunity in its scoring, which risks making the hypothesis tautological and non-falsifiable.
Name at least three core functions most modern states perform, and what are such states called when they cannot or do not perform these expected functions.
Defense, policing, and taxation (also order and administration) — states that fail to perform these are called fragile states, reflecting a fundamental lack of state capacity.
Presidents can exist in presidential, semi-presidential, and parliamentary democracies. How do you know that it is a semi-presidential democracy?
This system exists when the government is responsible to the legislature and the head of state is popularly elected for a fixed term.
What is the step-by-step procedure for classifying dictatorships, and what is one example of a civilian dictatorship identified this way?
First, identify the effective head of government. If the leader is a king with hereditary succession, it is monarchic. If the leader serves or has served in the armed forces, it is military. Otherwise, it is civilian — for example, Nicolae Ceaușescu’s Romania was a civilian dictatorship.