1.1 The Practice of Political Scientists

Unit 1 - The Practice of Political Scientists

Do you love data 🤓? Then this is the unit for you!

For this topic, you'll need to understand how political scientists gather data 🎯, and how they use that data to explain the behavior of individuals and groups in a society 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 More specifically, you will need to apply what you learn about being a comparative 🧐 scientist to the course countries 🗺️ 

Let me take a second to remind you of the 6 course countries (UK 🇬🇧, Russia 🇷🇺, Iran 🇮🇷, China 🇨🇳, Mexico 🇲🇽, and Nigeria 🇳🇬) that AP Comparative Government will expect that you to: 

1. Be able to describe their structure, function, and political systems of the course countries.
2. Be able to analyze data in the form of charts, graphs, real life examples from the course countries.
3. Be able to compare the course countries and explain the reasons for similarities and differences between the course countries using provided data.

Topic 1.1 Terms

Success in this course relies heavily on knowing 🧠 your terms. Vocabulary 📇 is key in Comparative Government, because it will be used over the entire course. For that reason, we will always start have key 🔑 vocabulary for every topic.

• Empirical Data—Evidence gathered by observation 🔎 or experimentation 🧪, in other words, factual evidence. political scientists use empirical data to make hypothesis and inferences about the world. - Example: Data gathered by political campaign polls is considered empirical data.
• Normative Data—Evidence that is conceptualized data 📊 in other words, norms, or opinion based on data. It is usually used in poltical science to assess what is "usual" in a population. - Example: Average salary levels of a population over in a certain year.
• Quantitative Analysis—A large number of cases that allows the researcher to analyze 🧐 the data through the use of statistical 📊 techniques. (Whew this is a lot to take in! An easier way to think of this would be quantity over quality.)- Example: The number of people that voted for a candidate in an election can provide data to quantitative analyses.
• Qualitative Analysis—A small number of cases, which is much more limited in terms of statistical evidence, but tends to be more thorough and detailed in terms of subjective analysis. This is a lot of words, so it's easier to remember quality over quantity.- Example: For qualitative analysis, scholars will more likely look at documents, texts and essays instead of numbers.
• Correlation—Exists when there is an association between 2️⃣ > variables. There are two types of correlation: - Positive correlation ➕ happens when, as one variable increases, the other one also increases. Example: If you sleep 💤 more, your productivity will tend to increase.- Negative correlation ➖ happens when one variable increases, the other decreases. Example: If you spen more time watching TV 📺 there is a tendency that your grades will go down.
• Causation—Relationship between cause and effect, in other words what is the cause of something. Extremely difficult to determine with certainty in comparative politics with so many variables that influence items like stability, influence, etc.- Example: Not providing accessible ballots will decrease the number of votes.🗳 Note that is is tricky to establish this relation with 100% certainty, however, this cause-and-effect relation has been observed so many times that it has been established to be true.
• Human Development Index (HDI)—An index created by the United Nations. Summarizes measures of average achievement in key dimensions in human development (like schooling 🎒, life expectancy 👶🏼, and income 💰) If you want to explore the Human Development Index further here is a helpful link.
• Gini Index—Shows income inequality within a country. Familiarize yourself with the Gini Index as well as using this link.
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—Market value of a goods and services produced. If you want to learn a lot more about GDP 🤑 and learn how to calculate GDP 💸 I recommend this website.

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Here are other data collection resources that you should know: 

• Freedom House - A non-governmental organization that conducts research on the levels of "freedom" across the world and reports it annually. Their research takes into consideration a number of factors, such as the extent of political rights, freedom of the press and the strength of the rule of law to determine on a scale of 1 (most free) - 7 (least free) the level of freedom of each country. 🕊 Learn more about Freedom House here. 

• Transparency International - A non-governmental organization that is engaged in fighting corruption and promoting integrity and accountability across the world. The most important data they provide is the annual Corruption Perception Index. This organization investigates corruption in the public sector, in the private sector, and in the poltiical process. 💸 Learn more about Tranparency International here. 

• Failed (or Fragile) States Index - This measurement provides an annual ranking of countries based on their perceived levels of social, economic and political stability. The FSI measure is important to indicate which countries are at risk of collapsing due to myriad of factors. The factors taken into consideration are poverty, corruption, inequality, weak governance, natural disasters, among others. The scale ranges from 0 (countries that are least at risk) to 120 (countries that are most at risk). ⚠️ Learn more about FSI here.

💡It is important to have a knowledge on how to use these global measurements to compare the political state of nations across the world. You could use these resources to investigate patterns and write your own analyses on the FRQ portion of your exam! 

Topic 1.1 Essential Knowledge 🧠

1️⃣ identify types of data (see the definitions above).

2️⃣ describe data presented to you. Let's go through an example of what you might need to do.

MCQ

In a research study, which of the following does a researcher seek to explain?

A. the concepts

B. the theory

C. the independent variable

D. the dependent variable

E. the reliability

Correct Answer (Don't peak 👀)

The correct answer is D. Let's look at why. The dependent variable is caused or influenced 🗣️ by another variable and this is what political scientists 🔬 are doing looking at an issue and trying to look at what other variables are correlated 📉 or causing that variable. 

Confused yet? Let me give you an example. A researcher hypothesis that high mortality rates (dependent variable) are a result of high poverty rates (Independent variable). In the research study they are looking for the impact of poverty on mortality rates and where there is a causal relationship (direct cause-poverty causes high mortality rate, or correlation, a change in poverty rates and a change in mortality rates exists but there is not enough evidence to prove direct relationship.

FRQ

Starting with the 2021 exam, you will have at least one 1️⃣ free response question that is going to be a quantitative analysis 📈 question. Let's look at a simple example from a previous exam:

This publicly released College Board FRQ Question (2019) is an excellent example of what you will need to do during your AP® Exam.

Let's break down each part of the question together and we can go through what the expectation is for you as a student, and how you should answer each part of question 8 from the 2019 AP Comparative Government Exam.

To access the full question, click here.

1. **The population pyramids illustrate the age and sex structure of China's and Nigeria's populations.**1. Using the population pyramids, describe one difference in the age structure of China compared to that of Nigeria.1. This takes us back to expectation 2: be able to analyze data in the form of charts, graphs, real life examples from the course countries. All you need to do to answer the question and earn the point is to explain a difference between the 2 countries using the provided data.1. Describe one governmental policy that influenced the age structure in China.1. This is where you have to know your course countries, this isn't going to come from the graphic organizer, but rather your understanding of policy in our course countries.1. Describe one economic consequence of the age structure of Nigeria.1. In this question, you need to use the data provided to you and make a claim based on the data and what you know about the course country.1. Describe one economic consequence of the age structure of China. 1. You need to do the same thing of combining outside knowledge and using the question's given data for China. The College Board really wants to know if you know your course countries and their economic and political policy.1. Explain a political consequence of having a disproportionately younger population structure.1. In this case, you need to make a claim based on evidence and what you know about the course country in regards to a political consequence.

Sample Answers (Don't peak 👀)

• (a) If you look at the graph, you could say Nigeria has a younger population than China OR China has an older population than Nigeria.
• (b) China's one-child policy limited the number of children per family, thus limiting the younger population in the age structure.
• (c) A strong answer here would be high unemployment in Nigeria as there is an overwhelming number of young people and not enough economic opportunities for all of them.
• (d) Currently, there is a large work force and because of this, China can expect continued economic growth.
• (e) In the case of Nigeria, you could say due to the large numbers of individuals under 18, a significant number of citizens cannot vote and therefore, may not have their interests represented by the government because they do not have a direct say in elections or policy making.