CPO 2001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Gini Coefficient, Modernization Theory, Consumerism
28 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
Chapter 1: comparative politics and the comparative method. Power is the ability to influence others or impose one"s will on them. Politics is the struggle in any group for power that will give one or more persons the ability/authority to make decisions for the larger group. The method of comparing countries can help us make arguments about cause and effect by drawing evidence from across space and time. The comparative method is the means by which social scientists make comparisons across cases. By comparing countries, scholars seek out conclusions and generalizations that could be valid in other cases. Comparative method is a set of tools to make inferences about causality. Inductive reasoning is research that works from case studies (data) in order to generate hypotheses. Explanation moves from specific statements to general ones. Deductive reasoning is the research that works from a hypothesis that is then tested against data. Explanation moves from general statements to specific ones.
