INRL7016: ADVANCED RESEARCH IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (DL) Session 4 Dr. Jon Wheatley
Key questions
A research question should be …
Example
Hypotheses
Causality and the logic of comparison
Testing hypotheses: Variables
Exercise
25.15M
Category: economicseconomics

Advanced research in international relations (DL)

1. INRL7016: ADVANCED RESEARCH IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (DL) Session 4 Dr. Jon Wheatley

INRL7016 ADVANCED RESEARCH IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
(DL)

2. Key questions

How do I formulate a research question?
◻ The logic of comparison.
◻ How do I conduct a case study?

3. A research question should be …








Interesting: requires motivation and enthusiasm!
Relevant: makes a contribution, has not been done before.
Feasible: Can you address it with the time and resources
available?
Ethical: Does it do no harm?
Concise: Well-articulated, concepts clearly defined.
Answerable.
Based on earlier research (or a gap in the literature).

4. Example



Example: Why do resource‐rich states rarely become major
world powers?
Is this a good research question? Is it interesting, relevant,
feasible, ethical, concise, answerable, based on earlier
research? Should we refine the question?

5. Hypotheses




Normally, once we have finalised our research question, the
next step is to formulate one or more hypotheses.
Hypotheses can be seen as tentative answers to our research
question.
Example: Why do resource‐rich states rarely become major
world (economic) powers?
¤
¤
H1: Resource-rich states channel wealth to elites and neglect
state infrastructure.
H2: By dint of geographical misfortune, most resource-rich
states were poor when they discovered the resource and
therefore have a long way to catch up.

6. Causality and the logic of comparison




Very often hypotheses are about causality (X causes Y).
To test hypotheses, we normally need to compare to
investigate whether different circumstances (X) give rise to
different outcomes (Y). This does not have to be between
countries; it can be between individuals, between regions of
a country, between regions of the world, or between
different points in time.
Comparison in politics/IR is the act of taking two or more
elements, and analysing their similarities and differences.

7. Testing hypotheses: Variables





Variables are phenomena that vary from case to case. Examples:
wealth, political participation, degree of democracy. They are not
always easy to operationalise and measure.
Hypotheses suggest a causal link between two variables: a
dependent variable (DV), which is the thing you are trying to
explain and an independent variable (IV), which is what you think
causes the thing you are trying to explain.
So a hypothesis takes the form IV => DV. Example:
¤ Economic development causes democracy.
But remember: there may be more than one cause for the
phenomenon you are interested in (more than one IV for your DV).

8. Exercise



Take the hypothesis that: ‘countries with compulsory voting systems,
such as Australia, have more politically engaged citizens than those
without, such as the UK’.
Consider:
¤
¤
¤
¤
What are the independent (IV) and dependent variables (DV)? How
would you operationalise them?
How would you investigate this hypothesis?
What would you compare?
Are there other possible IVs that could explain your DV?
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