GV922-7-SP-CO:
Concepts and Measurements in Comparative Political Research
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Government
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Inactive
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
15
07 May 2021
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
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On what ground can we conclude that government A performs better than government B? Are elections more competitive in country B than country A? Are citizens in country A more knowledgeable about politics than citizens in country B? How do we know the relative importance and salience of a specific policy issue or policy dimension in country A compared to that in country B?
Most political science research addresses questions that require some form of comparison to give an answer. The questions often direct us to compare political attitudes and behaviors of citizens, characteristics of electoral processes and party competitions, or the performance of politicians, parliaments, and governments across time and space.
As stated by Almond et al., "comparison is the methodological core of the scientific study of politics (Almond, Powell, Strøm and Dalton, 2001)." Therefore, understanding the measurements for key concepts in political science must be one of the most fundamental and essential part for students of political science in order to conduct systematic and scientific research, especially in comparative politics.
This seminar offers an in-depth and thorough understanding of (conventional and alternative) measurements for the core concepts in comparative political research. The seminar focuses on core theoretical concepts in three broad research areas: 1) citizen competence, 2) institutional contexts related to elections, party competition, and legislative behavior, and 3) the quality of democracy and government performances. This seminar also facilitates discussions on the substantive importance of key concepts and critical assessment of the correspondence between the measurements and the theoretical and conceptual ideas. Lastly, the seminar aims to deal with issues related to measurement comparability. As Guy Peters stated, the measurement and the problems of comparability of measures are perhaps the most fundamental barriers to good comparative research (Peters 1998, p.80). Therefore, understanding the issue of comparability and equivalence of the measurements will be invaluable to improve the current practice in political science research.
The seminar aims to cover a range of topics and questions, including:
1. What are the concepts that are important for understanding behaviors and performances of political actors (e.g., citizens, parties, politicians) and the working of contemporary representative democracies? How are they defined and operationalized?
2. How are these key concepts measured in political science research? To what extent are the measurements corresponding to the theoretical ideas?
3. What is measurement equivalence, comparability, reliability, and validity? How can we apply these standards to measurements used in inter-personal or cross-national comparisons?
4. What are the issues and challenges in existing measurements based on mass opinion surveys, expert surveys, composite indices, and/or various indicators for political and social contexts?
5. (With regard to the issues and challenges above) how to improve the measurements to enhance their validity, equivalence, comparability, and the correspondence with theoretical concepts?
6. What are the important theoretical concepts in comparative political research that we are missing a valid measurement for? If any, how can we develop and construct better measurements?
This seminar offers an extensive and in-depth understanding of how to conduct good empirical research in comparative politics, focusing on one of the most fundamental issues in the field -- measurements. The course module provides an overview of key concepts in comparative politics (including citizen competence, electoral and party competition, democracy and government performances) and in-depth discussions and thorough analyses of conventional and alternative ways of measuring the key concepts in comparative political research.
At the end of the seminar, students should be able to:
a. Understand key concepts in measurement theories.
b. Identify core concepts in comparative political research and their theoretical implications.
c. Explain different types of data sources and detailed processes to build up conventional and alternative ways to operationalize and measure the core concepts in comparative politics.
d. Assess the extent to which the measurements correspond to the theoretical idea.
e. Identify various issues regarding inter-personal and/or cross-national comparability of the measurements.
f. Apply theoretical and practical foundations to critically evaluate the comparability and validity of the measurements and identify limitations and challenges in them.
g. Suggest better ways to measure the key concepts to enhance the measurements’ validity, comparability, and the correspondence with the original concepts.
No additional information available.
There are three learning goals for each weekly topic. The assigned reading materials are organized to serve them over the course of the term. First, grasp a general theoretical and research context in which the specific measurement is used. Second, scrutinize the measurement itself to understand the way the measurement is constructed. Third, critically assess the measurement in terms of (in-)congruence with the concept in the theory, validity, and comparability. Each assigned reading material serves to one of these learning purposes.
A. Concepts: Substantive and theoretical Importance – Why is the concept important? What do political science studies find the concept being related to other important concepts?
B. Measurements (conventional and alternative): Going detail with the conventional and alternative measurements for the concept – What data and information they are based on and what aggregation methods are used to build the measurements, if any?
C. Critical assessments – Do the measurements correspond to the theoretical ideas? Are they functionally equivalent and comparable inter-personally or cross-nationally? If there exist multiple measurements for a single concept, what are the pros and cons and which one do you think the best/better measurement and why?
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Seonghui Lee, email: s.lee@essex.ac.uk.
Module Supervisor Dr Seonghui Lee, s.lee@essex.ac.uk or Module Administrator: Jamie Seakens (govpgquery@essex.ac.uk)
Yes
Yes
No
Dr Damien Bol
King's College London
Senior Lecturer
Available via Moodle
Of 20 hours, 20 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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