Ch. 1
Make sure your research questions are _____.
Falisifiable (what is falsifiable?)
A statement that is true by definition is ______.
Tautology (what is tautology?)
Examples of using "voice" politically in EVL.
Lobbying, protesting, joining interest groups to "persuade" the government to change.
Predatory view (what is predatory view)
define: proportional representation (PR)
The percentage of the vote is representative of how many legislative seats that party receives.
What is a political ideology, according to Kramnick.
What differentiates science from nonscience?
What conditions need to be met for citizens to be able to exert power over the government?
1. the citizen must have a credible exit threat
2. the government must be dependent on the citizen
What is Hobbes' solution to the state of nature?
the "sovereign" created by a social contract
Duverger's Law states that ______ electoral systems tend to favor a two-party system, while _____ electoral systems are more likely to produce a multi-party system.
Majoritarian/Proportional representation
Which of these scenarios would fall under the study of Comparative politics?
a. A study on the effectiveness of trade between island nations
b. A research paper on the history of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia
c. Studying the differences in the economy under a Republican president compared to under a Democratic president
d. A research paper studying why some countries backslide on democracy while others do not
D
A type of argument that consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion.
Categorical syllogism (what is categorical syllogism?)
Describe what the EVL would be in this situation:
The government raises the voting age to 21.
E -- Move to a different country
V -- Protest, reach out to representatives, etc
L -- Accept the decision and vote after age 21
Define a social contract
(what is) an implicit agreement among individuals in the state of nature to create and empower the state is referred to as _____.
Describe strategic voting and how it relates to disproportional electorial systems.
(what is) voting for your most preferred candidate who has a realistic chance of winning. Relates to disproportional systems because people are incentivized not to vote for their most preferred party (if it's small), resulting in small parties being penalized due to their low chance of getting seats, which then decreases the likelihood of people voting for them
The contractarian view of the state belives that the state derives its power from ______.
A social contract (what is a social contract?)
1. Question
2. Theory or Model
3. Hypothesis
4. Test Hypothesis (Observe the world)
5. Evaluation
How does the collective action relate to EVL theory?
For citizens to have power over the government, the government would have to be dependent on citizens. This is impossible if it is just a single citizen (or a small group). For individuals to exert influence, they must be able to collectivley mobilize and organize.
Describe the contractarian view of the state.
What is the difference between top-down and bottom-up approaches to political party formation?
Top-down: Political parties are created by individuals who have informational advantages and additional resources and can discern an opportunity to represent a previously unrepresented interest. They can even "create" divisions or cleavages in society
bottom-up: parties are the natural representatives of people who share common interests. There are given "natural" divisions or cleavages in society, and individuals form around these cleavages, so political parties evolve to represent the given interests.
Choose the question that is most like a positive question.
a. Do higher wages lead to higher levels of unemployment?
b. Are higher minimum wages better for young workers?
c. If minimum wage was higher would less people open small businesses?
A
Describe deductive and inductive approaches to learning. Why can inductive approaches be problematic?
Deductive -- formulate an expectation about what we ought to observe in light of a particular theory about the world and then set out to see if our observations are consistent with that theory.
Inductive -- starts with a set of observations and then tries to ascertain a pattern in the observations that can be used to generate an explanation for the observations. It can be problematic because the observation precedes theory construction, meaning that the theory is never exposed to potential falsification.
If a citizen does not have a credible exit threat, what is the likely outcome of the EVL tree?
The citizen is most likely to remain loyal from the beginning; even though the government is dependent on the citizen, it is free to ignore the citizen's use of voice. Because the government is going to ignore their use of voice and they lack credible exit threats, the citizen's best option is to remain loyal from the beginning.
Hobbes's description of the "state of nature"
A "war of every man against every man" in which life was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"
Summarize Duvergers theorey.
Characteristics of a country's social structure (social cleavages) provide the driving force behind the formation of parties. When there are many cross-cutting cleavages, there are many distinct positions that need to be represented. Whether these distinct positions are translated into distinct parties depends on the proportionality of the electoral system.