Galton’s Problem in Cross-National Research

“Galton’s Problem in Cross-National Research” by Marc Howard Ross and Elizabeth Homer, 1976

Question: Are correlations between two traits or behaviors, such as economic development and political stability, to be explained by functional relationships within political systems, or interms of diffusion and borrowing arising from interactions between countries?” (pg 1)

Problem: “…failure to consider the impact of diffusion may often have led to erroneous inferences and incorrect or incomplete theoretical interpretations” (pg 1)

Thus “…when we uncover a relationship between two characteristics that could possibly be related functionally – such as political instability and socioeconomic development, or defense spending per capita and GNP per capita – but where we cannot a priori eliminate the diffusion explanation” (pg 3)  

*This is a growing problem in CP.  Because of Globalization, we cannot take any countries as independent units of analysis- this is a growing problem and means that Large-N cross national research stands on shaky ground because any cross-national findings of correlations between dependent and independent variables must explain why this correlation isn’t caused by diffusion.  This is neigh on impossible using only large-N data. 

Solution: The authors argue that any attempt to solve this problem hinges on what Przeworski and Teune (1970) call Most Different Systems Design MDSD.  By sampling from different regions, you can try and disprove cultural diffusion, which the authors term Semi-Diffusion.

Definitions

Semi-Diffusion "where traits diffuse through contact, but only to cultures where there is an appropriate functional basis" (Ross & Homer, 1976, pg 3).