Lave, Charles A., and James G. March. 1975. "An Introduction to Speculation" and "The
Evaluation of Speculations." In An Introduction to Models in the Social Sciences, chapters 2-3: 8-84. New York: Harper & Row.
Week 3: September 17 Theoretical Puzzles and Their (Partial) Resolution
Zinnes, Dina A. 1980. "Three Puzzles in Search of a Researcher: Presidential Address."
International Studies Quarterly 24(3) (Sept.): 315-42.
Williams, John T., and Michael D. McGinnis. 1988. "Sophisticated Reaction in the U.S.-Soviet Arms Race: Evidence of Rational Expectations." American Journal of Political
Science 32(4) (Nov.): 968-95.
Week 4: September 24 Basic Issues of Measurement
Shively, W. Phillips. 1990. "The Importance of Dimensional Thinking" and "Problems of
Measurement: Accuracy." In The Craft of Political Research, chapters 3-4: 30-60. 3rd
ed. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Shively, W. Phillips, ed. 1984. Readings from The Research Process in Political Science:
Editor's Introduction
Sullivan, John L., George E. Markus, Stanley Feldman, and James E. Pierson. "The Sources of Political Tolerance: A Multivariate Analysis." [APSR reprint]
Sullivan, John L. "On Students and Serendipity in Social Research."
Week 5: October 1 Research Design: A First Cut
Campbell, Donald T., and Julian C. Stanley. 1963. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental
Designs for Research. Boston: Houghlin-Mifflin. [entire book, skim later sections]
Campbell, Donald T., and H. Laurence Ross. 1968. "The Connecticut Crackdown on
Speeding." Law and Society, 33-53.
Wood, B. Dan, and Richard W. Waterman. 1991. "The Dynamics of Political Control of the
Bureaucracy." American Political Science Review 85(3) (Sept.): 801-28.
Week 6: October 8 Experimentation
Kinder, Donald R. and Thomas R. Palfrey, eds. 1993 "On Behalf of an Experimental Political
Science." In Experimental Foundations of Political Science, 1-39. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press.
Ostrom, Elinor, James Walker, and Roy Gardner. 1992. "Covenants with and without a
Sword: Self-Governance is Possible." American Political Science Review 86(2) (Jun.):
404-17.
Week 7: October 15 Case Studies
Fenno, Richard. 1978. "Appendix-Notes on Method: Participant Observation." In Home
Style: House Members in Their Districts, 249-55, 256, 274-95. New York: Harper
Collins Publishers.
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretative Side." In The
Interpretation of Cultures, 3-30. New York: Basic Books.
Week 8: October 22 Comparative Analysis
Lijhart, Arend. 1971. "Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method." American
Political Science Review 65: 682-93.
Skocpol, Theda. 1976. "France, Russia, China: A Structural Analysis of Social Revolutions."
Comparative Studies in Society and History 18(2): 175-210.
Week 9: October 29 Cross-National Research
Jackman, Robert W. 1985. "Cross-National Statistical Research and the Study of
Comparative Politics." American Journal of Political Science 29(1) (Feb.): 161-82.
Lange, Peter, and Geoffrey Garrett. 1985. "The Politics of Growth: Strategic Interaction and
Economic Performance in the Advanced Industrial Democracies, 1974-1980." Journal
of Politics 47: 792-827.
Weeks 10 and 11: November 5 and 12 Research Design: A Second Cut
King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
[entire book]
Week 12: November 19 Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses of Political Participation
Schwartz, Joel D. 1984. "Participation and Multisubjective Understanding: An Interpretivist
Approach to the Study of Political Participation." Journal of Politics 26: 1,117-41.
Zaller, John and Stanley Feldman. 1992. "A Simple Theory of the Survey Response:
Answering Questions versus Revealing Preferences." American Journal of Political
Science 36(3) (Aug.): 579-616.
Week 13: No Class -- Thanksgiving Break
Week 14: December 3 Philosophy and Practice of Social Science
Diesing, Paul. 1991. How Does Social Science Work?: Reflections on Practice. Pittsburgh,
Penn.: University of Pittsburgh Press. [entire book]
Week 15: December 10 A Case Study of Social Science in Action
Brush, Stephen G. 1996. "Dynamics of Theory Change in the Social Science: Relative
Deprivation and Collective Violence," Journal of Conflict Resolution, 40:4
(December 1996), 523-545. [NOT IN COURSE READERS]
NOTE: In the first forty minutes or so students will complete course evaluations.
- 20% first paper -- due October 8
- 40% second paper -- due December 17
- 40% class participation (including quality of weekly memos)
Weekly Memos: Learning how to get to the heart of an argument and to express oneself clearly
and succinctly are important survival skills for the academic line of work. To develop this skill,
each student should write a short memo of two or three pages in duration that either summarizes
important aspects of the readings they have done and/or raises puzzling questions they have about
these readings and their implications for research in political science. These memos need to be
turned in no later than Wednesday morning at 9:00 AM (please turn them in earlier if possible).
In your first memo (due before the second week's session) you should address the following
questions, after you have completed reading the two chapters of Lave and March.
In your memos for subsequent weeks, you should discuss how the approaches covered in
that week's readings could be applied to your topic of interest. Other memo topics include any
observations that you would like to make on that week's readings, as well as any questions you
would like us to discuss during class. You should expect to be able to discuss any matter you
raise in your memo. Try to pick important questions, since we only have a limited amount of time
for discussion, and also because you will be evaluated on the quality of your class participation.
First paper: The assignment for this paper is to describe an interesting speculation about political
actions and outcomes that you would like to pursue as a research topic at some future date.
Write a short essay of around five pages that includes the following:
(1) Describe the speculation, why you think it is interesting, and why it is an important
speculation for the study of political science;
(2) Demonstrate how you have evaluated this speculation in light of reading Lave and
March. What are some of the alternative speculations that you would need to think hard
about if you were to undertake research on this speculation?
(3) What are the concepts and variables that you would need to identify in order to conduct
research about this speculation and the most important alternative explanations?
(4) Provide an initial sketch of a research design that could be used to examine a hypothesis
related to this speculation. What are the threats to validity involved in this particular
type of research design? What steps would you begin to think about in coping with
these threats to validity?
Second paper: The assignment for this paper is to write a prospectus outlining the basic research
design for a major piece of political research. Your research question should be concerned about
the relationship between two or more political, social, or economic phenomena. What does the
relevant literature suggest about the relationship(s)? How does your investigation contribute (or
add) to the existing literature? How do you plan to go about systematically examining the
proposed relationship(s)? This paper must describe (in much more detail than the first paper) the
particular hypotheses, research methods, operationalizations, and ways of coping with threats to
validity that you would use in implementing this research project.
Textbooks: The folllowing books should be available at the IMU and TIS bookstores:
Campbell, Donald, and Julian Stanley. 1963. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for
Research. Boston: Houghlin-Mifflin.
Diesing, Paul. 1991. How Does Social Science Work?: Reflections on Practice. Pittsburgh, Penn.:
University of Pittsburgh Press.
King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific
Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
A few copies of the Y570 Course Packet is available at the IMU Bookstore with (nearly) all
the other required readings. More copies will be made available if necessary, but many of you may
want to obtain copies from students who took this course before. This year's reader is identical to
the readers for Fall 1996 and 1995 and it is very similar to the Fall 1994 version. (TIS has a few
copies left of the 1994 version.) A copy of one of these readers will also be put on reserve in the
Political Science Research Collection, Woodburn 200. Copies of books should also be available
there and in the Reserve Room of the Main Library.