POLI 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Richard Fenno, Falsifiability

• School: McGill University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLI 210
• Professor: Dietlind Stolle

Document Summary

Poli 210- lecture 3: theory building and causality. How does he collect evidence: often asks select people, compares select cities/neighbourhoods, measurement of poverty, relative and absolute gun violence. A (cid:396)esea(cid:396)(cid:272)h (cid:395)uestio(cid:374) asks the (cid:858)(cid:449)ho, (cid:449)hat, (cid:449)he(cid:374), o(cid:396) (cid:449)h(cid:455)(cid:859) (cid:271)ehi(cid:374)d so(cid:373)e phe(cid:374)o(cid:373)e(cid:374)o(cid:374) of interest. A theory is a potential casual mechanism or explanation that answers a research (cid:395)uestio(cid:374). It(cid:859)s a set of logically related propositions that explain political phenomena. Must indicate the unit of analysis, dv and iv, relationship between the two variables, comparison between values of iv; direction of relation, must be empirically testable. Develop theory: add a (cid:272)ausal e(cid:454)pla(cid:374)atio(cid:374) to the e(cid:374)d (cid:271)(cid:455) addi(cid:374)g (cid:862)(cid:271)e(cid:272)ause (cid:863). Hypothesis: state relationship between two concepts, add direction of relationship, add comparison, make it testable. In a comparison of [units of analysis], those having [one value on the independent variable] will be more likely to have [one value on the dependent (cid:448)a(cid:396)ia(cid:271)le] tha(cid:374) (cid:449)ill those ha(cid:448)i(cid:374)g [a diffe(cid:396)e(cid:374)t (cid:448)alue o(cid:374) the i(cid:374)depe(cid:374)de(cid:374)t (cid:448)a(cid:396)ia(cid:271)le](cid:863).