POLS 3312, Arguments, Data and
Politics, Chapter 1,2,3, & 4 UH,
Yongkang fully solved
Inference - correct answer ✔✔A belief on evidence and rules for processing that evidence.
Methodology - correct answer ✔✔tools for gathering and analyzing data to try to make valid
inferences.
Drawing Inferences - correct answer ✔✔1. claim
2. Evidence
3. Processing Filter
4. Beliefs
Two Categories of Inference - correct answer ✔✔1. Descriptive Inference
2. Causal Inference
Descriptive Inference - correct answer ✔✔What are the facts?
a. Sometimes seen as the lesser type of inference
b. Still often very interesting
Examples:
1. Is this climate changing?
2. Is the United States politically polarized?
3. Is global terrorism increasing?
4. Is Azerbaijan a democracy?
,Causal Inference - correct answer ✔✔Why does something occur?
Casual Inference I - correct answer ✔✔Typically what we are interested in.
Questions about why?
Examples:
1. Why is the climate changing?
2. Why is the United States politically polarized?
3. Why is (or is not) global terrorism increasing?
4. Why is (or is not) Azerbaijan a democracy?
Causal Inference II - correct answer ✔✔Typically start with either:
1. an outcome (dependent variable)
2. a cause (independant variable)
Two types of Causal Inference: - correct answer ✔✔1. Reverse
If what, they Y?
What causes Y?
Associated with a search for causes
Example:
What causes climate change?
2. Forward
If X, then what?
What happens if X?
Associated with Experimentation.
, Example:
What happens if we release greenhouse gases into the air?
Which of these is a causal research question? - correct answer ✔✔1. What had to have
happened for Democrat to win the last US general election?
2. What role did the economy have on the last US general election?
The three factors that make a good research question. - correct answer ✔✔1. Start from
political problem or puzzle
2. Builds on an existing research literature
3. Non-obvious
A better research question is A - correct answer ✔✔A. Why was degressive proportionality
chosen as the method of allocating seats in the EP?
or
B. Why was Germany allocated 96 seats in the European Parliment during the 2014 elections?
A better Research Question is B - correct answer ✔✔A. Given my conversations with taxi drivers
during my weekend holiday in Tashkent, why hasn't Uzbekistan become a full-fledged
democracy?
or
B. Given what we know from Skocpol about the causes of social revolutions, why haven't such
revolutions occured in several post-Soviet states in Central Asia?
A better Research Question is A - correct answer ✔✔A. How did social media use shape the
development of Arab Spring, protests in Egypt?
or
B. How do social media facilitate Americans' decisions about where to take a summer holiday?
Politics, Chapter 1,2,3, & 4 UH,
Yongkang fully solved
Inference - correct answer ✔✔A belief on evidence and rules for processing that evidence.
Methodology - correct answer ✔✔tools for gathering and analyzing data to try to make valid
inferences.
Drawing Inferences - correct answer ✔✔1. claim
2. Evidence
3. Processing Filter
4. Beliefs
Two Categories of Inference - correct answer ✔✔1. Descriptive Inference
2. Causal Inference
Descriptive Inference - correct answer ✔✔What are the facts?
a. Sometimes seen as the lesser type of inference
b. Still often very interesting
Examples:
1. Is this climate changing?
2. Is the United States politically polarized?
3. Is global terrorism increasing?
4. Is Azerbaijan a democracy?
,Causal Inference - correct answer ✔✔Why does something occur?
Casual Inference I - correct answer ✔✔Typically what we are interested in.
Questions about why?
Examples:
1. Why is the climate changing?
2. Why is the United States politically polarized?
3. Why is (or is not) global terrorism increasing?
4. Why is (or is not) Azerbaijan a democracy?
Causal Inference II - correct answer ✔✔Typically start with either:
1. an outcome (dependent variable)
2. a cause (independant variable)
Two types of Causal Inference: - correct answer ✔✔1. Reverse
If what, they Y?
What causes Y?
Associated with a search for causes
Example:
What causes climate change?
2. Forward
If X, then what?
What happens if X?
Associated with Experimentation.
, Example:
What happens if we release greenhouse gases into the air?
Which of these is a causal research question? - correct answer ✔✔1. What had to have
happened for Democrat to win the last US general election?
2. What role did the economy have on the last US general election?
The three factors that make a good research question. - correct answer ✔✔1. Start from
political problem or puzzle
2. Builds on an existing research literature
3. Non-obvious
A better research question is A - correct answer ✔✔A. Why was degressive proportionality
chosen as the method of allocating seats in the EP?
or
B. Why was Germany allocated 96 seats in the European Parliment during the 2014 elections?
A better Research Question is B - correct answer ✔✔A. Given my conversations with taxi drivers
during my weekend holiday in Tashkent, why hasn't Uzbekistan become a full-fledged
democracy?
or
B. Given what we know from Skocpol about the causes of social revolutions, why haven't such
revolutions occured in several post-Soviet states in Central Asia?
A better Research Question is A - correct answer ✔✔A. How did social media use shape the
development of Arab Spring, protests in Egypt?
or
B. How do social media facilitate Americans' decisions about where to take a summer holiday?
