Assignment task: Consider the following description of a research study and use it to answer the first set of questions.
In 'Democratization and the Danger of War', we examine the impact of democratization on the likelihood of states going to war. Using the Polity II data set, we statistically estimate the impact of regime change on the initiation of conflict. Our results indicate that states undergoing democratization are approximately 2/3 more likely to go to war than states not undergoing regime change, including both democracies and autocracies. This is due to several factors, which we explore via four illustrative cases: mid-Victorian Britain, Napoleon III's France, Bismarckian, and Wilhelmine Germany, and Taisho Japan. Elites in collapsing autocratic regimes incite nationalistic tendencies in order to gain domestic and international allies, while weak institutions and resistant social groups during transition lead democratizing states to be more susceptible to conflict. In light of these findings, we must be cautious in recommending that the response to Democratic Peace theory should be to encourage the development of new democracies.
Mansfield, Edward D. and Jack Snyder. "Democratization and the Danger of War." In Brown, Michael et al. Debating the Democratic Peace. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996.
Q1. What is the research question that Mansfield and Snyder are exploring?
Q2. Identify the dependent variable.
Q3. Identify the independent variable.
Q4. Identify a possible hypothesis in the description of the study.
Q5. Identify the null hypothesis of your proposed hypothesis.
Q6. Do you think that the measurement device identified has validity? Why or why not?
Q7. What is their research design methodology?