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7. A hypothesis:
a. is an uninformed guess about why things happen the way they do.
b. is a proposed relationship among variables.
c. has one variable.
d. has two dependent variables.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
8. The main difference between a dependent variable and an independent variable is that:
a. the dependent variable comes first in a hypothesis.
b. the independent variable comes last in a hypothesis.
c. the dependent variable is what a researcher is trying to explain.
d. the independent variable is what a researcher is trying to explain.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
9. Researchers operationalize variables because:
a. comparative analysis requires quantification of variables.
b. to do comparative analysis we need specific, concrete alternatives to use in place of
such abstract concepts as wealth and health.
c. doing so makes political science research more accessible to the public.
d. doing so helps make political science a real science.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
11
10. Why would political scientists NOT use abstract concepts as a measure of comparative
politics?
a. Abstract concepts do not provide specific criteria.
b. Abstract concepts are easy to operationalize.
c. Abstract concepts are too numerous to quantify.
d. Abstract concepts are easy to define.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
11. The most common way to operationalize the concept of national wealth is to use:
a. GDP.
b. GNP.
c. GDP per capita.
d. income per capita.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
12. Which of the following is a hypothesis?
a. India is more democratic than China.
b. Higher GDP per capita is associated with lower levels of happiness.
c. Democracy is increasing in the world.
d. Violence has increased in Mexico over the past 10 years.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
12
13. Which of the following is NOT a hypothesis?
a. Higher GDP per capita is associated with higher levels of happiness.
b. The higher the level of trust among citizens in a country, the lower the homicide rate.
c. Authoritarian governments are more successful at promoting economic growth than
democratic ones.
d. Income inequality has increased in the United States since 1980.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
14. Several variables are associated with longer life expectancy. One way to remove the
possible effects of per-capita income as a variable is to examine only countries with
similar levels of income per capita. This is an example of using:
a. the comparative cases method.
b. the multiple cases method.
c. a control variable.
d. quantitative comparative analysis.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
15. The main weakness of the case study method in comparative political analysis is that:
a. it does not offer detail and depth.
b. it is difficult to find appropriate case studies.
c. it requires the researcher to be fluent in the language of the country being studied.
d. it allows researchers to be confident about their results for the country they studied,
but not to generalize beyond it with any assurance.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
13
16. A main strength of the comparative cases method is that:
a. it offers depth as well as greater breadth of analysis than the case study method.
b. it uses quantitative data.
c. it can control all the variables that might affect the results of a study.
d. it can be used in countries where the case study method cannot be used.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
17. The main weakness of using many countries for comparative analysis is that this method
of comparative analysis:
a. uses quantitative data to test hypotheses.
b. uses scatter diagrams that make it difficult to understand relationships among
variables.
c. does not provide as much insight as the other two methods as to why relationships
between variables exist.
d. sacrifices breadth for depth.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
18. The results of the scatter diagram showing the relation between countries’ GDP per capita
and life expectancy show that:
a. higher national wealth causes people to live longer.
b. higher national wealth is correlated with people living longer.
c. living longer causes increases in national wealth.
d. the comparative cases method of comparative analysis can be a useful way of testing
a hypothesis.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
14
19. Why is the scatter diagram a good choice for comparative analysis?
a. A scatter diagram works well for showing patterns.
b. A scatter diagram shows more quantitative data than other diagrams.
c. Scatter diagrams are more popular with political scientists.
d. Scatter diagrams are excellent for showing qualitative data.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
20. All the countries above the regression line in Figure 1.1:
a. had average health versus wealth given their average per capita GDPs.
b. had worse than health versus wealth given their average per capita GDPs.
c. had better health versus wealth than predicted given their average per capita GDPs.
d. had common health and wealth characteristics.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
21. Which of the following is NOT an advantage of the methods of comparative political
analysis over intuitive analysis in everyday life?
a. Comparative political analysis usually leads to more accurate results.
b. Comparative political analysis gives us a procedure to validate whose intuition is
correct when people disagree.
c. Comparative political analysis makes its assumptions and evidence clear so that
others can test how the results were achieved.
d. Comparative political analysis can be used to establish whose view is correct in
disagreements between Christians and Muslims.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
15
22. The main difference between empirical and normative judgment is that:
a. empirical analysis can be used in comparative political analysis but normative
judgment cannot.
b. empirical judgment is descriptive and based on observation while normative
judgment is based on assumptions about what is better or more desirable.
c. empirical judgment is used in sciences such as chemistry and physics but not in
political science.
d. empirical and normative judgment are very different kinds of judgment that cannot be
combined to increase our understanding.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
23. Today, slavery:
a. is non-existent.
b. is legal everywhere.
c. is less of a problem than it was during the Atlantic slave trade.
d. affects more people’s lives than it did during the Atlantic slave trade.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
24. Which of the following is NOT an example of empirical judgment?
a. The United States spends a higher percentage of its GDP on medical care than
Sweden.
b. China has had more success in reducing poverty than India.
c. North Korea is a strongly authoritarian country.
d. The Indian government should do more to reduce child malnutrition.
analysis.
Topic: The Logic and Practice of Comparative Politics
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
16
25. Which of the following is NOT a criticism of using GDP per capita as a measure of a
good society?
a. It can conceal considerable differences in income among citizens.
b. It includes goods and services many people consider undesirable.
c. It omits behavior many people consider desirable.
d. It underestimates the importance of economic growth for poor countries.
society.
Topic: Visions of the Good Society: Gross National Product and Gross National
Happiness
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
26. Which of the following is NOT a reason that supporters of the capability approach use for
rejecting happiness as a satisfactory measure of a good society?
a. We do not have surveys comparing happiness among countries.
b. Surveys of happiness ignore differences in the ways people find pleasure.
c. Cultural norms can affect how people respond to questions about happiness, which
can result in misleading comparisons of happiness among countries.
d. While happiness is a good thing, it is not the only thing.
society.
Topic: Visions of the Good Society: Gross National Product and Gross
National Happiness
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
17
