Research Methods in Politics 1

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Research Methods in Politics1

• Introduction

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Teaching Learning Objectives

• to answer the question what is research?
• 2. to introduce key features of research specific
  to Politics

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What is research?

• process of systematic inquiry
• inquisitive seeking to answer the research
  question
• careful, methodical
• original
• academic research has a central concern for
  theory testing existing theory (deductive
  research) or developing new theory (inductive
  research)

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The research process

• research question
• literature and theory review
• data collection
• analysis
• interpretation
• conclusions

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What is Politics?

• The academic discipline of Politics is concerned
  with developing a knowledge of government and
  society. The interaction of people, ideas and
  institutions provides the focus to understand how
  values are allocated and resources distributed at
  many levels from the local to the sectoral,
  national, regional and global. The analyses of
  who gets what, when , how, why, and where are
  central and pertain to elated questions of power,
  justice, order, conflict, legitimacy,
  accountability, obligation, sovereignty and
  decision-making. Politics encompasses
  philosophical, theoretical, institutional and
  issue-based concerns relating to governance (QAA,
  2000)

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The course

• INTRODUCTION
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Power, Ethics, Bias
• 3. Philosophy and Principles
• METHODOLOGIES
• 4. Quantitative and Qualitative Research
• 5. Case Studies, Comparative etc Research
• COLLECTING INFORMATION
• 6. Evaluating Published Research
• 7. Validity, Reliability, Accuracy
• 8. Literature Review
• 9. Interviews
• 10. Questionnaire Surveys
• 11. Observation

• ANALYSIS
• The Process
• QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
• 13. Descriptive Statistics
• Inferential Statistics
• Regression Analysis
• Factor Analysis
• QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
• 17. Analysing talk and text
• 18. Content Analysis
• Discourse Analysis
• COMMUNICATING RESEARCH
• 20. Writing-Up

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Questions for Discussion or Assignments

• What is Politics? Is Political Science more
  appropriate, a misnomer or oxymoron?
• What is Research?
• What is the current research agenda for Politics?
  What topics would you like to see added? Why?
• Is power central to Politics?
• Which research methods are generic to social
  sciences? Which others, if any, are specific to
  Politics?
• What are the implications of postmodernism for
  academic research? Is there a distinction between
  truth and facts?

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Course Texts

• Pierce, R. (2008) Research Methods in Politics a
  practical guide. London Sage.
• Burnham, P., Grillard, K., Grant, W., and
  Layton-Henry, Z. (2004) Research Methods in
  Politics. Basingstoke Palgrave Macmillan.
• Harrison, L. (2001) Political Research an
  introduction,. London Routledge.
• Marsh, D., and Stoker, G. (eds.) (2002) Theory
  and Methods in Political Science. Basingstoke
  Palgrave