Politics make the world go round. The news, jobs, and the economy are incorporated in politics. I’ve put together and simple guide to learning politics. It just might be a great conversation starter, or if you’re that person that never understands what anyone is talking about, here is your chance! Learn comparative politics!
2.0 WHAT IS SCIENCE
- Science has been closely associated with something known as the method of induction.
- In comparative politics, the method of induction is more commonly referred to as the Comparative Method.
- Comparative Method has a great influence on scholars in comparative politics – but many believe that its deeply flawed
- Most political scientists employ a more deductive scientific approach to study political phenomena. His deductive approach is based on the idea of falsification.
- Falsification – the idea that our theories and ideas should be testable and might be wrong.
- Ultimately this view of science recognizes that we can never know anything for certain scientific knowledge always remains tentative and subject to change.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
- Consider the five statements.
-These statements are in some sense wrong, because science is not a collection of facts that tell us what we know about the world. Scientific theories cannot be proven, thus, a scientific theory is not one that has been proven.
– Science is a collection of facts that tell us what we know about the world.
– A scientific theory is one that has been proven.
– “The sun revolves around the earth” is not a scientific statement.
– If my theory is correct, then I should observe that rich countries are more likely to be democracies. I do observe that rich countries are more likely to be democracies. Therefore, me theory is correct.
– Politics cannot be studied.
- The statement that the sun revolves around the earth is a scientific statement (even though is false) the argument outlined in the statement four is invalid and, therefore, I cannot conclude that my theory is correct
- Politics can be studied in a scientific manner.
- Science is a method and culture.
- Sir Karl Popper science is not a static set of beliefs to be conserved and that all knowledge is tentative.
- Socrates reminds us that that acute awareness of our own ignorance is always the first step to knowledge.
- St. Paul offers hope that our willingness to test all of out ideas will leave us something to hang on to.
- Science is about asking tough questions and providing answers that invite criticism.
- Science is about recognizing the limits of out knowledge without lapsing into irresponsible criticism.
- Science is about using the best logic, methods, and evidence available to provide answers today, even though we recognize that they may be overturned tomorrow.
- Comparative Politics– subfield of political science
- Political Science– the study of politics in a scientific way
2.2 THE COMPARATIVE METHOD
- A common method employed by comparative political scientists today is known as the Comparative Method.
- Comparative Method = Mill’s Method (John Stuart Mill Method’s)
- Mill’s Methods
- Method of Agreement– compares cases that “agree” in terms of the outcome to be explained.
- Method of Difference– compares cases that “differ” in terms of the outcome to be explained.
– Political Scientists that who employ these methods collect observations of the world & then use these observations to develop general laws and theories about why certain political phenomena occur.
– Goal: Identify the ‘causation’ meaning: ‘necessary’ & ‘sufficient’
Necessary Condition- circumstance in whose absence the event in question cannot occur. In other words, the effect (E) never happens unless the purported necessary condition Cause (CN) is present.
If E, then CN
If no CN, then no E
Sufficient Condition- circumstance in whose presence the event in question must occur. In other words, the sufficient condition or cause (CS) never occurs without the effect (E).
If CS, then E
If no E, then no CS
As an example, fire is a sufficient condition for smoke. If there is a fire, there will be smoke. And if there is no smoke, there can be no fire.
Note: effect E can occur even when condition CS is not present – this is because CS is a sufficient, but not necessary, condition for E. Put different, there may be causes of E other then CS
Jumping is a sufficient, but not a necessary, condition for leaving the ground. Jumping will cause us to leave the ground – however, the fact that we are not on the ground does not automatically mean that we jumped- there are many other ways of leaving the ground.
- A necessary and sufficient condition – circumstance in whose absence the event in question will not occur and in whose presence the event in question must occur.
- The systematic search for necessary, sufficient, and necessary
- and sufficient condition has come to be known as Mills methods
or simply the Comparative Method.
If and only if statements
2.2.4. A CRITIQUE OF MILLS METHODS
Required Assumptions to Draw Valid Inferences from Mills Methods
– The casual process must be deterministic.
– There can be no interaction effects.
– There can only be one cause of the outcome.
– All of the possible causes must be identified.
– All the instances of the phenomena that could ever occur have been observed by us or all the unobserved instances (including future instances) must be just like the instances we have observed.
- Deterministic Cause- is one that always produces a specific outcome.
- Probabilistic Cause- is one that influences the probability of a specific outcome.
– D>$>D
2.3.1. AN INTRODUCTION TO LOGIC
- Argument– An argument is a set of logically connected statements, typically in the form of a set of premises and a conclusion. An argument is valid when accepting its premises compels us to accept its conclusions. An argument is invalid if, when we accept the premises of an argument, we are free to accept or reject its conclusions.
- If P, then Q; If P = Antecedent, then Q = Consequent.
- Minor Premise – consists of a claim about either the antecedent or the consequent in the conditional statement (major premise).
- Syllogism– arguments that affirm or deny the antecedent and those that affirm of deny the consequent.
- 1. AA – VALID
- 2. DA- INVALID
- 3. AC- INVALID
- 4. DC- VALID
2.4. SCIENCE AND FALSIFICATION – Science is a collection of statements about how the world works
- Epistemology- The study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity.
- Science is the quest for knowledge that relies on criticism
- Scientific statements are falsifiable. This means that they are potentially testable- there must be some imaginable observation that could falsify of refute it.
- Tautologies– are not falsifiable, but are true by definition.
- Imagination in a straight jacket– it is imagination constrained by what we already know about the world (Feyman 1967).
- Laws of nature do not change – though our understanding of those laws will likely change over time.
- The Scientific Method
1. Question
2. Theory of Model
3. Implications (Hypothesis)
4. Observe the World (Test Hypothesis)
5. Evaluation
3.0 WHAT IS POLITICS
- Political science is the study of politics in a scientific matter.
- Politics is a subset of human behavior that involves the use of power or influence.
- Power is involved whenever individuals cannot accomplish their goals without either trying to influence the behavior of others or trying to wrestle free from the influence exerted by others.
- EVL– game to analyze the balance of power between citizens and state.
1. Exit- You accept that there has been a deleterious change in your environment and you alter your behavior to optimize in the new environment.
2. Voice– You use your voice (complain, protest, or take direct action) to try and change the environment back to its original condition.
3. Loyalty– You accept the fact that your environment has changed and make no change to your behavior.
- Game Theory– is a fundamental tool for analyzing strategic situations where decision-makers interact with one another
- Game– situation where an individual’s ability to achieve his goals depends on the choices made by other actors
- Strategy- for playing a game is a complete plan of action that specifies what a player would do under every possible circumstance.
- Nash Equilibrium– a set of strategies in a game (one for each player) such that no player has an incentive to unilaterally change his mind given what the other players are doing.
- Extensive Form Game– players make their choices sequentially
- Normal or Strategic Form Game – players make their choices simultaneously.
4.0. THE ORIGINS OF MODERN STATE
- Two views of the state
1. Contractarian– the creation of the state helps to solve political disputes that citizens might have with one another. The state emerges to help individuals in situations where decentralized cooperation is likely to be difficult. This usually leader to conflict between citizen and state.
2. Predatory– focuses on the potential conflicts of interest that exist between citizens and the state
WEBER– “Monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force”
TILLY-“States are “relatively centralized, differentiated organizations, the officials of which, more or less, successfully claim control over the chief concentrated means of violence within a population inhabiting a large contiguous territory”
NORTH-“A state is an organization with a comparative advantage in violence, extending over a geographic area whose boundaries are determined by its power to tax constituents
- State- is an entity that uses coercion and the threat of force to rule in a given territory.
- WEBER – “a state requires given territory” Is a “human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. In some sense, this component of Weber’s definition distinguishes “states” from “nations”
- At a very basic level, a nation is a group of people who share some sort of common identity like language, identity or an ethnicity.
- Failed-State- is a state-like entity that cannot coerce and is unable to successfully control the inhabitants of a given territory.
4.3. THE CONTRACTARIAN VIEW OF THE STATE
Early modern political thinkers: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau- engaged in the thought of experiments to help them think more clearly
HOBBES – “War of every man against every man” “solitary, poor, nasty, british, and short”
Works Cited
Michael Sodaro.Comparative Politics: A Global Introduction. McGraw-Hill. (May 3, 2007)
