1. Grigsby 2
Political Science and Scientific
Methods in Studying Politics

2. Political Science
An academic and research discipline that
deals with the theory and practice of
politics and the description and analysis
of political systems and political
behavior.

3. Historical
Developments
• Beginnings traced
to Ancient Greece
• Socrates
• Plato
• Aristotle
• Academic Field in U.S.
• Columbia University 1880
• First political science department
• American Political Science Association
• Formed in 1903

4. Subfields
• Comparative Politics
• American Politics
• International Relations
• Public Policy
• Political Research Methods
• Political theory
• Specialized Groups

5. Focus of Research
• Normative issues
• Issues involving value
judgments and ethics
• Empirical investigations
• Observable and factual
• Both Normative and Empirical

6. Analytical
Approaches
• Traditionalism
• Behavioralism
• Postbehavioralism

7. Traditionalism
The analysis of the formal,
legal, and official side of
political life.
• Try to understand politics by examining
• Laws
• Governmental offices
• Constitutions
• Other official offices associated with
politics

8. Behavioralism
The empirical analysis of
the actual behavior of
politically involved
individuals and groups
• Developed after WWII Charles Merriam 1874-1953
• Based on the works of Charles Merriam in the
1920s
• Stresses the importance of empirical
analysis
• Collection of data based on observation
• What is, rather than what should be

9. Postbehavioralism
Political Science should be
relevant, as well as
empirically reliable
David Easton
• An alternative to both traditionalism and
behavioralism (1969)
• Information produced by political science
has ethical implications.

10. Methodology
• Scientific Method
• The collection of data
• Analysis of data
• Testing of assertions
• Science’s explanations are necessarily
incomplete and tentative
• Always subject to falsification

11. Steps Involved
• Formulate an hypothesis
• Operationalize concepts
• Identify independent and dependent
variables
• Clarify measurement criteria
• Distinguish between causation and
correlation
• Develop scientific theories

12. Formulating the
Hypothesis
A statement proposing a
specific relationship
between phenomena.
• “Is voting in U.S. elections related to
age?”
• “U.S. citizens 18-24 years of age will
vote in lower numbers than will U.S.
citizens 45-55 years of age.”

13. Operationalize
Concepts
Concepts must be defined
precisely to allow for
empirical testing.
• “Young people will vote less than older
people in the U.S.”
• “U.S. citizens 18-24 years of age will vote in
lower numbers than will U.S. citizens 45-55
years of age.”

14. Identify Variables
The phenomena linked
together in a
hypothesis.
• Independent variables
• Those that affect something
• Example: Age
• Dependent variables
• Those that are being affected
• Example: Voting

15. Clarifying
Measurement Criteria
Specifying what is taken
as an indicator of the
variable.
• An indicator is evidence
• How would we obtain evidence
regarding our variable of voting?

16. Causation and
Correlation
• Causation:
• One variable absolutely causing or creating
the other.
• Being age 20 absolutely determines whether
someone will vote.
• Correlation:
• Changes in one variable appear when
there are changes in another variable.
• Lower voting appears with younger age groups.

17. Scientific Theories
• Seek to offer explanations
about why and how correlations occur.
• Seek to predict.
• Having found a relationship between age and
voting, the political scientist might theorize:
• Relationship is related to different mobility patterns
among groups.
• Most interesting aspect of science.

18. Francis Bacon - 1600s
• Science can free us from
various “idols” (errors,
misconceptions, and distorted
views).
• Idols of marketplace
• Idols of the tribe
• Idols of the den
• Idols of the theater

19. Idols of the
Marketplace
• Errors based on
misunderstanding
and faulty
communication.
• Errors related to our inexact use of
language.

20. Idols of the Tribe
• Errors related to the
flaws of human nature
• Errors caused by the human tendency
to be:
• Quick to judge
• Superficial in our assessments

21. Idols of the Den
• Errors caused by our
inability to see
beyond our own particular surroundings
• Errors related to our near-sightedness
and tendency to view our way of life as
the standard for judging all others.

22. Idols of the
Theater
• Errors based on our
beliefs in dogmatic
teachings.
• Errors caused by believing in systems
of thought characterized by inflexibility
closed off to questioning and critical
analysis.

23. Research Strategies
• Case Studies
• Survey Research
• Experiments and Quasi-Experiments
• Indirect Quantitative Analysis

24. Case Studies
An investigation of a
specific phenomenon
or entity.
• Strength:
• Allows for in-depth study
• Weakness:
• Information may not apply to other cases

25. Survey Research
Questionnaires and/or
interviews to gather
data.
• Strengths:
• Large amounts of information can be gathered
and assessed
• Information more general than in case studies
• Weaknesses:
• Wording, sampling, and other problems
• Lacks up-close, in-depth details of a case study

26. Experiments
Investigation of a
hypothesis by using a
test group and a
control group.
• Strength:
• Experimental conditions allow researchers to
carefully test hypotheses.
• Weaknesses:
• Participants may alter behavior
• Many questions cannot be tested by experiments

27. Quasi-Experiments
• Field experiments
• Like experiments, but
unable to have true
control group

28. Indirect Quantitative
Analysis
The analysis of data already
compiled by others
• Strength:
• Researcher builds on findings of others
• Weakness:
• Often difficult to compare findings for
different purposes.

29. Limitations of
Science
• Human bias
• Human behavior is often
unique
• How do we know
findings are correct?
• Do we ignore important questions?
• Science in conflict with ethics?

30. One Nation, Underprivileged
Rank 2: Below the Line

32. War on Poverty
“It will not be a short or
easy struggle, no
single weapon or
strategy will suffice,
but we shall not rest
until that war is won.
The richest nation on
earth can afford to
win it. We cannot
afford to lose it.” Lyndon B. Johnson

33. Poverty Defined
A lack of those
necessities that “the
custom of the country
renders it indecent for
creditable people,
even of the lowest
order, to be without.”
Adam Smith

34. U.S. Poverty
• Age group
most at risk is
children
• U.S. level of poverty is one of the
highest in the industrialized world

35. “It is poverty to decide that a child must
die so that you may live as you wish.”
~ Mother Teresa of Calcutta