ABSTRACT
Political research involves some concepts that are relatively easy to measure. Concepts such as a nation’s per capita income, votes cast for a presidential candidate, and a respondent’s racial or ethnic identity can all be measured in a relatively straightforward manner (assuming one has the data). However, many important political concepts, such as a person’s ideology, the extent to which a state is innovative, or a nation’s political culture, represent difficult challenges to our skills in designing operational definitions.
