Analyzing Quantitative Data in
Comparative Politics
Politics is a social science
• Since politics is part science we can use
statistics and data to measure levels of
economic development, economic equality,
quality of life, freedom, and government
transparency
Empirical evidence
• Empirical means that something is a fact, not
disputed
• For example:
Japan consists of 4 main islands
Japan’s population is 127.6 million (2012)
China has the world’s second largest
economy (GNP)
Can you think of your own examples
of empirical evidence?
Generally comparative politics data is
considered to be empirical***
1)
2)
3)
4)
Size of Economies (GDP/ GNP)
Purchasing Power of Consumers (PPP)
Economic equality (Gini Index)
United Nations Human Development Index
(HDI)
5) Level of Freedoms (Freedom House Scores)
6) Government Transparency (Transparency
International)
Size of Economies
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total market
value of all goods and services produced in a
country during a specific period
For those of you taking economics GDP= (private
consumption+ gross investment + government spending+
exports- imports)
Gross National Product (GNP) is the total market
value of all goods and services produced by
residents of a country- this includes all wealth
earned abroad (ex. American companies in
Japan)
Total GNP
Which country has
the largest economy
in the world?
Any surprises on this
list?
China is ranked
number 2. Does that
mean that China is
richer than Japan?
GDP/GNP per capita
Often you will come across this measurement
which is :
GDP or GNP
= GDP/GNP per capita
Total Population
Per capita means per person
How does China rank in GDP per capita ?
Limitations of GDP per capita
Does GDP per capita represent how much each
citizen earns per year?
What does it really measure?
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
Purchasing Power Parity is the
value in USD of what GDP can
really buy in a given country
It measures what 1USD buys in
each country using a basket of
goods
Why might this be a better
indicator than GDP per capita
alone?
Economic equality (Gini Index)
Gini index: a mathematical formula that
measures the amount of economic equality
in a society; its scale ranges from 0 to 100,
where 0 corresponds to perfect equality and
100 to perfect inequality.
Why would political scientists want to
measure this?
Which countries have the most
economic equality? Why?
Human Development Index (HDI)
United Nations Index which measures a
country’s socio-economic development
GDP per capita, Life expectancy, and the
Literacy rate are all factored in the calculation.
The U.N. considers countries with a ranking
closest to 1.0 as having the highest standard
of living
Where do our six AP Politics countries
rank?
Levels of Freedom
• Freedom House (a non-governmental
organization) measures the levels of freedoms
in a country based on the following:
political rights (right to vote etc.)
civil liberties (freedom of the press etc.)
It ranks countries on a scale of 1-10 and then
places them in 3 categories: Free, Partly Free,
and Not Free
How do our six AP Politics countries
rank?
Levels of Transparency
• Transparency refers to the level of accountability
a government has to its citizens
• The less corruption= the more transparent
• The more corruption= the less transparent
• Like Freedom House, Transparency International
is an NGO which ranks countries on a scale of 110
• The higher the number, the higher the
transparency
How do our six AP Politics countries
rank?
Word of caution
Do not confuse correlation with causation
Correlation means two variables occur together
but causation means one variable causes
another
High GDP per capita and democracy are
correlated. But we can’t say high GDP per
capita causes democracy