Modeling Politics

Dr. Courtney Brown

Assignment #2

Read the article by Samuel Patterson and Gregory Caldiera titled "Getting Out the Vote: Participation in Gubernatorial Elections." Note how the authors use regression and scatterplots to argue their case. Write a short three to five page essay describing the empirical analyses that are presented in this article. Address the questions below in your essay.

• What is their primary thesis idea that they try to explain in the article?
• What dependent variables are used?
• Do you find that the operationalization of their main idea using the dependent variables that they employ is persuasive?
• How do they describe variation in their dependent variables, and how much variation do they find?
• What independent variables are used?
• Do you find that their choice of indepedent variables is adequate to demonstrate their points?
• What other dependent and independent variables might be interesting to examine that the authors did not include in their analyses?
• What kind of regression do they use in their analyses? Why do they use this type of regression?

NOTE: Note the change in the reading assignment for weeks 4 and 5 on the syllabus. You are to read chapter 3 before chapter 2 in the course text.

Use normal margins of 1 inch all around. Use Times New Roman 12 point font, and double space.