Week 6

Question 1

what is cross-case inference

Answer 1

DRAWING INFERENCES based on the SIMILARITIES/ DIFFERENCES between cases

Question 2

what are the 3 ways to select cases for comparison?

Answer 2

SELECTING DIVERSE CASES (pick cases that are DIFFERENT from each other-diverse, ensures cases are representative of broader populations within small amount of cases)

FILLING OUT CELLS (select cases that fit into a THEORETICAL TYPOLOGY-finding examples to support past theory) ex. theory explaining how/ why countries have gender quotas for women in politics and reserved seat system for racial minorities (people who are hold a seat or who are voting are from that group or people)-so she found examples of this in india and Argentina to further back up the theory

MILLIAN METHODS (most-SIMILAR: comparing cases that are the same except for the OUTCOME variable (dependent ex. different democratic variables) and EXPLANATORY variable (ex. is there a presidential system?) and most-DIFFERENT: on as many variables as possible the cases have different values-only the same for outcome and explanatory variables (all CONTROLS are different ex. picking countries that are very different) ex. 2 people go out to eat and both get sick, use this method to see that they ate all different things except for chicken-that is what was bad

Question 3

what are the 4 critiques of the millan method?

Answer 3

1. NO UNIDENTIFIED POSSIBLE CAUSES (have to assume you picked up on all variables ex. food poisoning: person b didn’t go somewhere alone to eat after)
2. NO DIFFUSION (can’t use method if one case affects another ex. one democratizing causes another to democratize)
3. NO “EQUIFINALITY” (assumes there is ONLY ONE CAUSE that explains the outcome-what if there are multiple?)
4. NO “CONJUNCTURAL CAUSATION” (assumes ONLY ONE variable AFFECTS the outcome)