Political Systems, Regimes, and Governments

Formal and Informal Institutions

Formal: executive positions, legislative, electoral systems, etc.

Informal: legislative norms, clan politics, corruptions, etc.

Political Institutions

A set of long-standing rules and public policies.

Area Studies

A regional focus when studying political science, rather than studying parts of the world where similar variables are clustered.

Behavioral Revolution

A movement within political science during the 1950s and 1960s to develop general theories about individual political behavior that could be applied across all countries.

Causal Relationship

Cause and effect; when a change in one variable causes a change in another variable.

Comparative Method

The means by which social scientists make comparisons across cases.

Comparative Politics

The study and comparison of domestic politics across countries.

Correlation

An apparent relationship between 2 or more variables.

Deductive Reasoning

Research that works from a hypothesis that is them tested against data.

Endogeneity

The issues that cause and effect are not often clear. In that variables may be both cause and effect in the relationship to one another.

Equality

A material standard of living shared by individuals within a community, society, or country.

Freedom

The ability of an individual to act independently, without fear of restriction or punishment by the state or other individual groups in society.

Game Theory

An approach that emphasizes how actors or organizations behave in their goal to influence others; built upon assumptions of rational choice.

Inductive Reasoning

Research that works from case studies in order to generate hypotheses.

Modernization Theory

A theory asserting that as society developed, they would take a set of common characteristics (democracy, capitalism).

Multicausality

When variables are interconnected and interact to produce particular outcomes.

Qualitative Method

Study through an in-depth investigation of a limited number of cases.

Quantitative Method

Study through statistical data from many cases.

Rational Choice

Approach that assumes that individuals weigh the costs and benefits and make choices to maximize their benefits.

Selection Bias

A focus on effects rather than causes, which can lead to inaccurate conclusions about correlation or causation.

Rule BY Law

Everyone is equal under the law (including the government).

Rule OF Law

The government is above the law.