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Agenda for Today

Agenda for Today. Lab scheduling Comparative Politics methodology Web guide assignment Web site and bulletin board overview. Lab Scheduling. Labs meet on alternate Thursdays on Lab days, there is no lecture -- come to lab instead of going to lecture

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Agenda for Today

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  1. Agenda for Today Lab scheduling Comparative Politics methodology Web guide assignment Web site and bulletin board overview

  2. Lab Scheduling Labs meet on alternate Thursdays on Lab days, there is no lecture -- come to lab instead of going to lecture Lab dates: Jan. 17, Jan. 31, Feb 14, March 7, March 21, April 4 1pm lab: B1114 (30 pcs) 2pm lab: B111 (24 pcs) lab section lists will be posted online

  3. Comparative Politics Goals for our discussion: understand causal analysis understand key political science terms learn to identify causal arguments in the texts we read in this class

  4. Comparative Politics What makes it “comparative”? We compare: countries: Canada vs. Britain cities: Toronto vs. Vancouver government agencies: Foreign Affairs vs. Treasury non-profit organizations: Greenpeace vs. Earthwatch …if we have 2 or more COMPARABLE CASES, we can compare them.

  5. What is comparable? How do we know whether are cases are comparable? classification -- typologies

  6. Why compare? Goal: inference “Using the facts we know to learn something about facts we do not know” (King, Keohane & Verba in Designing Social Inquiry) usually: causal inference

  7. Causal Argument Components: hypothesis independent variable dependent variable causal relationship research method unit of analysis observation case

  8. Stanford Internet Study Components: Hypothesis “the more hours people use the Internet, the less time they spend with human beings” independent variable amount of time individuals spend online dependent variable amount of time individuals spend in face-to-face interaction causal relationship time online displaces time spent face-to-face

  9. Stanford Internet Study (2) Components: research method Quantitative - survey research unit of analysis individuals and households Observation Individual response to questionnaire Case U.S.A.

  10. Issues in research design Questions to ask: Is the independent variable really independent? (endogeneity problem) Are we observing causation or correlation? Is the case selection random or biased? Are there enough cases or observations?

  11. Political “Science”? “Accumulation of knowledge about empirical world as systematic process of inquiry,” including: systematic collection of evidence generation and testing of hypotheses drawing of substantive inferences

  12. Web guide assignment Your paper should: Be on a topic or sub-topic that is directly relevant to the week’s readings. Identify 3-6 web sites that are in some way relevant to the week’s readings Make an overarching argument about a pattern or difference you found in the sites you visited. Support your overarching argument with short (1-2 paragraph) descriptions of each of the sites you identified.

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