POLI 300                           PROBLEM SET #3A                               due 10/05/09

IDENTIFYING VARIABLES

Each of the following statements makes an empirical assertion (which may or may not be true); each refers (at least implicitly) to two variables (and asserts that there is some kind of relationship between them). For each statement:

(a)       indicate to what unit of analysis (individuals, nations, elections, etc.) and, as appropriate, what particular population the variables pertain;

(b)       identify the two variables, with appropriate names (like TYPE OF _____, LEVEL OF _____, DEGREE OF _____, AMOUNT OF _____”, WHETHER OR NOT _____”); and

(c)       indicate a range of possible values for each variable (often, but certainly not always, LOW to HIGH will do).

            (Note: both variables in each sentence pertain to the same units.)

 1.         Junior members of Congress are less pragmatic than their senior colleagues.

 2.         Education tends to undermine religious faith.

 3.         Capital punishment deters murder.

 4.         Competitive elections make members of Congress more responsive to their constituents.

 5.         High approval ratings boost a President's re-election performance.

 6.         Hard studying makes for good grades.

 7.         Close elections stimulate voting turnout.

 8.         When times are bad, incumbent candidates are punished in elections.

 9.         Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

10.       An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

11.       If you want to get ahead, stay in school.

12.       Leftist governments bring about more inflation than conservative governments.

13.       The more interested people are in politics, the more likely they are to vote.

14.       Liberals generally vote Democratic and conservatives generally vote Republican.

15.       Dissatisfaction with the state of the economy leads people to vote against the incumbent party.

16.       A majoritarian electoral system generally results in two parties, while a proportional electoral systems generally produces a multiplicity of parties. [“Duverger’s Law”]

17.       Party identification in the electorate has weakened over the last generation.

18.       Increasing the size of a legislature reduces its lawmaking effectiveness.

19.       Term limits reduce legislative effectiveness.