Politically important cases sampling is a type of Purposive Sampling where the sampling method attracts or avoids attracting attention undesired attention by including or eliminating specific sensitive samples.
Examples of Politically Important Cases
- A government is conducting a poll regarding the fear of terrorism in common people in a particular region. The view of the people who have been under direct threat from terrorists or directly affected by a terrorist attack will be too strong and might bias the analysis. In such cases, some views which seem to be more influenced, are excluded and the view with apparently lesser influence will be taken for further analysis.
- A program is launched nationwide. To analyze the effectiveness of the program, the researcher may choose a district from with a legislator with high influence. Due to the influential nature of that legislator, the data so obtained is more likely to get attraction and become popular.
- While conducting a survey on American system of government, one might choose the Watergate or Iran-Contra scandals for study not merely because of the insight approaches they provide on the American system of government but also to grab more attention.
Advantages
- Increases Effectiveness
Politically Important Cases Sampling increases the effectiveness of the analysis by choosing attractive samples. Only such samples which can attract more public attention and have more possibility of being acted on. - Avoids Adverse Samples
Selection of sensitive samples can bring about unnecessary focus to the research analysis, which might be better avoided. - Allows Customization
As this process is conducted as per the judgment of the analyst, the process can be customized as per the necessity of the situation.
Disadvantages
- Risk of unnecessary focus on Presentation
This method focuses on the presentation aspect of the research. Since the main focus lies on the presentation and attractiveness of the information, the core theme might go missing. - Risk of Biasness
Since the method chooses or ignores only those samples which are politically important, there is always a risk that the sampling process gets biased and the true opinion might be lost. - Risk of getting controversial
As this method chooses the samples on the basis on political importance or adverseness, this method is more likely to be brought into controversy due to conflicting opinions of the related parties.