Chapter 2 Quiz

1. Which of the following is the best definition of a hypothesis?

a. A preliminary educated guess to be tested

b. An argument backed by evidence

c. A theory that has already been proven

d. A theory that has been disproved

2. What is the name given in science (including comparative politics) to an inter-connected group of arguments with empirical evidence behind them?

a. Correlation

b. Conceptualization

c. Hypothesis

d. Theory

3. Identify the false claim about correlations.

a. If two variables are correlated, this necessarily means that variation in one causes variation in the other.

b. If two variables are causally related, they will be correlated.

c. Sometimes correlations are products of some other, unobserved, factor.

d. Correlations between variables can be either negative or positive.

4. What is the name that social scientists give to a relationship between two variables in which they both seem to affect each other?

a. Causation

b. Spurious correlation

c. Omitted variable problem

d. Endogeneity

5. Why are comparative politics scholars attentive to deviant cases?

a. Deviance is just plain interesting

b. Weird polities are more compelling to study than normal ones

c. Deviant cases sometimes point towards an empirical critique of a theory

d. Deviant cases usually show you that you are right

6. Using a theory to generate a hypothesis for testing is best described as a process of which type?

a. Inductive

b. Deductive

c. Spurious

d. Endogenous

7. What do scholars mean when they point to "scope conditions"?

a. The simplest theory is the best

b. They involve new ways of looking at or seeing data

c. Ideas you can use to shoot down the theories of your opponents

d. Conditions that show where an argument does and does not hold.

8. What do we call it when two variables accompany one another and move in the same direction?

a. Positive correlation

b. Positive causation

c. Negative correlation

d. Negative causation

9. Which two terms are often loosely synonymous with "cause" in comparative politics scholarship?

a. Independent variable and “X variable”

b. Dependent variable and “X variable”

c. Dependent variable and “Y variable”

d. Independent variable and “Y variable”

10. Only one of the following is a feature of good arguments, despite appearances. Can you identify it?

a. Use of scholarly theories and evidence

b. Standing by your gut feeling no matter what

c. Listing all of the facts that are relevant to a given subject

d. Making an argument so formidable that it would be impossible to falsify it

11. Which of the following is most likely to be an example of a correlation where an omitted variable is responsible for the observed correlation?

a. A correlation between ice cream consumption and murders

b. A correlation between butter production and the performance of the stock market

c. A correlation between economic development and democracy

d. This never happens, by definition

12. What conclusion might we draw about a theory in comparative politics if there is evidence both for and against it?

a. The theory is refuted, end of story.

b. This theory is soon to be labeled an “iron law.”

c. Soon, with a little effort, the theory can be a hypothesis.

d. The theory likely needs some modification as account is taken of anomalous findings.

13. Which of the following could be the basis of a comparative theory?

a. Iran is an authoritarian state.

b. Authoritarianism is better than people think.

c. Authoritarianism is caused by economic underdevelopment.

d. Soon there will be no more authoritarian regimes.

14. In which order should a student of comparative politics attack a research project?

a. Consider a theory, develop a hypothesis, test it, build an argument, and write it up.

b. Build an argument, test a hypothesis, confirm the hypothesis, write it up.

c. Confirm a hypothesis, test it, build an argument, write it up.

d. Build a theory, write it up, test a hypothesis.

15. Mistyping one digit in recording a state's level of public spending would be an example of which of the following?

a. Measurement bias

b. Measurement error

c. Endogeneity

d. Theoretical bias

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