Introduction to Political Science Research Methods (Franco et al.)

Introduction to Political Science Research Methods, 1st edition, is an Open Education Resource Textbook that surveys the research methods employed in political science. The textbook includes chapters that cover: history and development of the empirical study of politics; the scientific method; theories, hypotheses, variables, and units; conceptualization, operationalization and measurement of political concepts; elements of research design including the logic of sampling; qualitative and quantitative research methods and means of analysis; and research ethics.

Welcome to political science: the scientific study of who gets what, when, where, how, and why. But political science is more than the study of political behaviors, processes, and institutions. Political science is a scholarly community of students, teachers, researchers, and practitioners who deeply care about promoting the generation, dissemination, and application of knowledge to improve our understanding of politics and solve public problems. And you are warmly welcomed to learn more about this increasing diverse and lively community that resides all over the planet.

Political science is a relatively new scholarly community, with the national American Political Science Association (APSA) having been established at the turn of last century in 1903. Over the last 116 years, the discipline has dramatically evolved. From early efforts to establish the discipline as a bulwark for inspiring a democratically minded public, to pioneering innovations in political institutions and processes, the community has maintained a constant effort to understand, and in ways shape, politics. And in its formative years, the discipline sought to differentiate itself from the fields of history and economics. As the first generation of political scientists were trained, the roots of political science as a “borrowing” discipline were established.

For the students of today, what does it mean for political science to be a “borrowing” (Dogan 1996) discipline? It means that while political science has core tenets, theories, and ways of analyzing the political world, it also does its best to utilize and leverage knowledge from a range of other fields: history, economics, psychology, sociology, statistics, anthropology, computer science, mathematics, cognitive science, and even biology. Additionally, these fields can borrow from political science as well. For example, there is an entire field of political economics that compares market-based systems with government-run systems. Therefore, students with a diversity of intellectual interests can explore them through the borrowing framework core to political science.

The evolution of political science is driven by teachers and researchers who hold a commitment to professing and studying politics. But it is important to highlight, that current teachers and researchers started as students, just like you, who were eager to learn more about their government, to understand different political systems, and to explore the world beyond their borders. With each new generation of political science students, educators, and researchers in colleges and universities, new voices begin to shape the discipline in expected and unexpected ways.

This book, Introduction to Political Science Research Methods (IPSRM), is an Open Education Resource (OER) written by community college faculty and financially supported by the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC). The purpose of this book is three-fold: introduce college students to research methods of political science; provide a no-cost textbook for adoption by faculty and use by students; and invite faculty and students to contribute to the improvement of the book with their own contribution.