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6 Comp. Pol. Stud. 3 (1973-1974)

handle is hein.journals/compls6 and id is 1 raw text is: 






    POLITICAL SYSTEMS AS RESIDUAL

                                             VARIABLES

      Explaining Differences Within Systems


                                                 HENRY TEUNE
                                       University of Pennsylvania

                                     KRZYSZTOF OSTROWSKI
                                     Polish Academy   of Sciences


 The problem of comparative analysis   is extracting what is generally
     true from observations bounded by specific systems. This problem is
roughly paralleled in experimental research when several experiments are
focused on the same hypotheses (for a discussion of experiments and other
research designs, see Campbell and Stanley, 1966). When contradictory
findings occur among experiments, it is possible to generate additional
experiments and with some probability reject one set of findings. In social
science, however, the presumption usually is that all experiments are
internally valid and that whatever differences appear in two or more sets
of observations are due to differences in the experimental conditions-
the social systems in which the observations are made. To establish
differences in contexts of the social science experiments, which explain
differences within each, requires shifting the level of analysis from the
primary objects of observation (individuals or groups) to the experiment
itself as a unit of analysis. The logic of such a shift in levels of analysis has
been defined elsewhere as the logic of comparative inquiry (Przeworski
and Teune, 1970).
   This problem of  comparative research is exemplified in results of

AUTHORS'  NOTE:  An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1970
Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Los Angeles.
Comparative Political Studies, April 1973, Vol. 6 No. 1,
01973  Sage Publications, Inc.


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