1. The Internet and Politics Agenda for Today  Lab scheduling  Comparative Politics methodology  Web guide assignment  Web site and bulletin board overview

2. The Internet and Politics Lab Scheduling  Labs meet on alternate Thursdays  on Lab days, there is no lecture -- come to lab instead of going to lecture  Lab dates: Jan. 17, Jan. 31, Feb 14, March 7, March 21, April 4  1pm lab: B1114 (30 pcs)  2pm lab: B111 (24 pcs)  lab section lists will be posted online

3. The Internet and Politics Comparative Politics Goals for our discussion:  understand causal analysis  understand key political science terms  learn to identify causal arguments in the texts we read in this class

4. The Internet and Politics Comparative Politics What makes it “comparative”? We compare:  countries: Canada vs. Britain  cities: Toronto vs. Vancouver  government agencies: Foreign Affairs vs. Treasury  non-profit organizations: Greenpeace vs. Earthwatch …if we have 2 or more COMPARABLE CASES, we can compare them.

5. The Internet and Politics What is comparable? How do we know whether are cases are comparable?  classification -- typologies

6. The Internet and Politics Why compare?  Goal: inference  “Using the facts we know to learn something about facts we do not know” (King, Keohane & Verba in Designing Social Inquiry)  usually: causal inference

7. The Internet and Politics Causal Argument Components:  hypothesis  independent variable  dependent variable  causal relationship  research method  unit of analysis  observation  case

8. The Internet and Politics Stanford Internet Study Components:  Hypothesis  “the more hours people use the Internet, the less time they spend with human beings”  independent variable  amount of time individuals spend online  dependent variable  amount of time individuals spend in face-to-face interaction  causal relationship  time online displaces time spent face-to-face

9. The Internet and Politics Stanford Internet Study (2) Components:  research method  Quantitative - survey research  unit of analysis  individuals and households  Observation  Individual response to questionnaire  Case  U.S.A.

10. The Internet and Politics Issues in research design Questions to ask:  Is the independent variable really independent?  (endogeneity problem)  Are we observing causation or correlation?  Is the case selection random or biased?  Are there enough cases or observations?

11. The Internet and Politics Political “Science”? “Accumulation of knowledge about empirical world as systematic process of inquiry,” including:  systematic collection of evidence  generation and testing of hypotheses  drawing of substantive inferences

12. The Internet and Politics Web guide assignment Your paper should:  Be on a topic or sub-topic that is directly relevant to the week’s readings.  Identify 3-6 web sites that are in some way relevant to the week’s readings  Make an overarching argument about a pattern or difference you found in the sites you visited.  Support your overarching argument with short (1-2 paragraph) descriptions of each of the sites you identified.