ABSTRACT
One of the most challenging tasks in empirical analysis is combining concepts with numbers in a meaningful fashion. Numbers without conceptual foundations are meaningless. Similarly, we cannot test the validity of our concepts without valid and reliable measures. Previously, we used the relationship between measurement and concepts (for example, in our discussion of the measures for ZPOWER and national potential power, as well as voting turnout rates, YAP) to explain how we can apply the logic of the normal sample distribution to the quantitative analysis of comparative data. Through z-scores, we effectively combined several classes of data representing direct measures (ZAREA, ZPOP, and ZGDP97) into a new, single inferential measure of national potential power (ZPOWER).
