POLS 208 Chapter Notes - Chapter .: Firm Foundation
5 Dec 2018
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It can help better manage some of the characteristic limitations of a small-n research design. Mitigating the many variables, small n problem. Strengthen the capacity of comparativists to accurately code their cases. Comparativists too often rely on national-level means and aggregate data when studying very heterogeneous countries. Leads to a miscoding of cases that can distort causal inferences and skew theory building. A focus on comparing subnational units equips us to handle the spatially uneven nature of major processes of political and economic transformation. Processes like democratization and economic reform have varied effects across territorially defined subunits of a political system. Efficient way to increase # of observations in the context of a small-n research design. Better for controlling for cultural, historical, ecological, and socioeconomic dimensions than national units. Comparing similar subnational units across distinct national units is probably a more power strategy for making valid causal inferences (contiguous subnational units across nations)
