a theory asserting that as societies developed, they would take on a set of common characteristics, including democracy and capitalism.
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Qualitative Model
study through statistical data from many cases.
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Rational Choice
approach that assumes that individuals weigh the costs and benefits and make choices to maximize their benefits.
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International Relations
a field in political science that concentrates on relations between countries, such as foreign policy, war, trade, and foreign aid.
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Institution
an organization, establishment, foundation, society, or the like, devoted to the promotion of a particular cause or program, especially one of a public, educational, or charitable character.
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Theory
an integrated set of hypotheses, assumptions, and facts.
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Multicausality
having, involving, or allowing for more than one cause.
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Politics
the struggle in any group for power that will give one or more persons the ability to make decisions for the larger group.
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Power
the ability to influence others or impose one's will on them.
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Selection Bias
a focus on events rather than causes, which can lead to inaccurate conclusions about correlation or causation.
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Area Studies
a regional focus when studying political science, rather than studying parts of the world where similar variables are clustered.
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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.
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Causal relationship
cause and effect; when a change in one variable causes a change in another variable.
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Comparative Method
the means by which social scientists make comparisons across cases.
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Comparative Politics
the study and comparison of domestic politics across countries.
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Correlation
an apparent relationship between two or more variables.
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Deductive reasoning
research that works from a hypothesis that is then tested against data.
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Dependent variable
a variable whose value changes based on that of another.
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Endogeneity
the issues that cause and effect are not often clear, in that variables may be both cause and effect in relationship to one another.
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Equality
a material standard of living shared by individuals within a community, society, or country.
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21
Formal Institutions
institutions usually based on officially sanctioned rules that are relatively clear.
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Freedom
the ability of an individual to act independently, without fear of restriction or punishment by the state or other individuals or groups in society.
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Game Theory
an approach that emphasizes how actors or organizations behave in their goal to influence others; built upon assumptions of rational choice.
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Independent Variable
a variable whose value does not depend on that of another.
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Inductive Reasoning
research that works from case studies in order to generate hypotheses.
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Flashcard (52)