1. Political Science 200A Week 5 Micro-Behaviors: Actor Level of Analysis

2. Structure of Empirical Theory
Hard Core
(Definitions, Axioms, Postulates)
Auxiliary Hypotheses (Middle-Range Theories)
Testable Hypotheses
Testing with Empirical Evidence

3. Campbell, Converse, Miller and Stokes
Converse, Miller and Campbell
University of Michigan Institute for Social Research The American Voter (1960)

4. Campbell, Converse, Miller and Stokes
What are the key testable hypotheses advanced by Campbell et al.
What mid-range theory might lead one to this hypothesis?
How would you describe the research method?

5. Seymour Martin Lipset (1922-2006)
Ph.D. Columbia 1949
Leftist politics until 1960s; Neo-conservativism
Political Man (1960)

6. Lipset Political Man 1. What is Lipset’s key hypothesis about voting?
What extensions of this hypothesis (auxiliary hypotheses) does he offer?
2. What middle-range theory supports these hypotheses?

7. Anthony Downs (1930- ) Ph.D. (Economics) Stanford University 1956
Academic appointment University of Chicago
Senior Fellow, Brookings Institutions 1977-
Economic Theory of Democracy (1957)

8. Downs 1. What is Downs’ key testable hypothesis?
What auxiliary testable hypotheses does he offer?
2. What middle-range theory supports these testable hypotheses?
3. What deeper axiomatic assumptions support this middle-range theory?

9. Morris Fiorina (1946- ) PhD, Rochester Professor, Harvard, Caltech
Currently, Stanford University

10. Fiorina. Retrospective Voting
1. How does Fiorina’s theory of vote choice extend the analysis of Downs?
How does Fiorina’s account of retrospective voting differ from V. O. Key’s
Why do these differences matter?
Do the differences among Fiorina, Downs, and Key lead to different testable hypotheses?
2. What assumptions does Fiorina make about voters’ thought processes?

11. Samuel Popkin (1942- ) Ph.D., MIT (1969)
Lecturer, Professor at Yale, Harvard, Texas
Since 1975: UCSD
The Rational Peasant (1979)
The Reasoning Voter (1991)

12. Popkin. Reasoning Voter
1. What does Popkin add to the Downs-Fiorina middle-range theory?
2. Does this lead to different testable hypotheses?

13. Donald Green, Bradley Palmquist, and Eric Schickler
Ph.D. Berkeley 1988
Appts at Yale and Columbia
Eric Schickler (1969-)
Ph.D. Yale 1997
Appts at Berkeley and Harvard
Green Columbia
Schickler UC Berkeley

14. Donald Green, Bradley Palmquist, and Eric Schickler
1. What is the key testable hypothesis advanced by GPS?
2. What is the middle-range theory they are challenging?
-What alternative middle-range theory do they advance?
-Can the GPS theory explain change?