As promised in my last post, here is Comparison 3, an assignment in which each student chooses independent variables and operationalizes them for the two cases chosen in Comparison 1. The instructions for the assignment:
Using the template that you submitted for Comparison 2, replace “Variable 1” and “Variable 2” with two independent variables that you think have a causal relationship with the dependent variable. Replace “Indicator 1” and “Indicator 2” with indicators of each of the independent variables you have selected — indicators are the means by which you will measure changes in your variables. Enter the data for the indicators for 2000 and ~ 2020 as shown in the template. Enter + or – to show where these measures increased or decreased.
Data on many indicators for independent variables can be found at:
World Bank data: https://databank.worldbank.org/home.aspx (scroll to “What’s Popular” and choose an indicator, countries, and years using the dialog boxes that appear; close a dialog box by clicking “x” to save your selection).
World Values Survey dataset: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp. Choose the wave sets closest to 2000 and 2020 for which both of your cases were surveyed. Not all countries were surveyed in each wave set.
Design of government institutions: https://www.constituteproject.org/.
List your data sources in the template where indicated.
After you have submitted this assignment, upload a copy of your completed Comparison Template to your team’s workspace on Canvas.
Next in this series: the qualitative comparative analysis that each team will build using information from the Comparison templates completed by its members.