Political Research: Methods and Practical Skills PDF
Preview Political Research: Methods and Practical Skills
Political Research: Methods and Practical Skills Political Research Methods and Practical Skills THIRD EDITION Sandra Halperin and Oliver Heath 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Sandra Halperin & Oliver Heath 2020 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition 2012 Second Edition 2017 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. 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Brief Contents Detailed Contents vii How to Use this Book xvii Guided Tour of the Online Resources xviii Preface xxi 1 Political Research 1 PART 1: Philosophy of Social Science: Knowledge and Knowing in Social Science Research 2 F orms of Knowledge: Laws, Explanation, and Interpretation in the Study of the Social World 27 3 Objectivity and Values 64 PART 2: How to do Research: An Overview 4 Asking Questions: How to Find and Formulate Research Questions 93 5 Finding Answers: Theories and How to Apply Them 123 6 Research Design 159 7 What is Data? 186 PART 3: How to do Research in Practice 8 Experimental Research 211 9 Comparative Research 231 10 Historical Research 260 11 Surveys 284 12 Interviewing and Focus Groups 309 13 Ethnography and Participant Observation 339 14 *Textual Analysis 364 vi BRIEF CONTENTS 15 Quantitative Analysis: Description and Inference 393 16 Patterns of Association: Bivariate Analysis 422 17 A Guide to Multivariate Analysis 451 Appendix 481 Glossary 487 Index 497 Detailed Contents How to Use this Book xvii Guided Tour of the Online Resources xviii Preface xxi 1 Political Research 1 Issues in political research 2 Politics and International Relations 3 Empirical vs normative research 4 Positivism vs interpretivism 5 Quantitative vs qualitative research 6 The research process 7 Part 1: Philosophy of Social Science: Knowledge and Knowing in Social Science Research 8 Part 2: How to do Research: An Overview 10 Part 3: How to do Research in Practice 14 Conclusions 22 References 22 PART 1: Philosophy of Social Science: Knowledge and Knowing in Social Science Research 2 Forms of Knowledge: Laws, Explanation, and Interpretation in the Study of the Social World 27 Chapter Summary 27 Introduction 27 Positivism 29 Classical positivism 30 Empiricism and logic as the basis of truth claims 33 Challenges to positivist approaches in the social sciences 40 Scientific realism 40 1. What is the ontological status of macro-social mechanisms used to explain social outcomes? 42 2. How do we explain macro-social phenomena? 43 3. How do macro-social ‘social mechanisms’ produce social outcomes? Providing explanations of macro-social phenomena with micro-foundations 44 Interpretivism 47 The analysis of ethnic conflict: a positivist (rational choice), interpretivist (constructivist), and critical realist approach 51 A critical realist approach to explaining the Yugoslav conflict 57 viii DETAILED CONTENTS Conclusions 59 Questions 61 Guide to Further Reading 61 References 62 Endnotes 63 3 Objectivity and Values 64 Chapter Summary 64 Introduction 64 Normative and empirical theory in political research 66 Values, the researcher, and the research process 67 Values and social practice 73 Thomas Kuhn and scientific revolutions 73 Paradigms and paradigm change 74 Kuhnian paradigms and political studies: the case of development theory 77 Paradigms and the study of development 78 Imre Lakatos and scientific research programmes 82 The role of values in research: Kuhn and Lakatos compared 86 Conclusions 87 Questions 88 Guide to Further Reading 88 References 89 PART 2: How to Do Research: An Overview 4 Asking Questions: How to Find and Formulate Research Questions 93 Chapter Summary 93 Introduction 93 Research questions: what are they? Where do they come from? 97 Finding research questions 97 How to formulate a research(able) question 104 The research vase 104 Types of questions: getting clear about what you want to know 107 Descriptive questions 108 Explanatory questions 109 Predictive questions 110 Prescriptive questions 110 Normative questions 111 Unanswerable questions: fallacies in framing research questions 112 ‘Researchability’: a final consideration 114 The literature review 114 Stage 1: reading the literature 116 Stage 2: summarizing the literature 117 Stage 3: what still needs to be done? Setting the stage for your own argument 118 DETAILED CONTENTS ix Conclusions 120 Questions 121 Guide to Further Reading 121 References 122 5 Finding Answers: Theories and How to Apply Them 123 Chapter Summary 123 Introduction 123 Answers to research questions: general requirements 127 What type of answer does your question require? 127 Answers that contribute to the development of theory 130 Where do hypotheses come from? 132 Illustration: how an analysis of existing theoretical perspectives provides the basis for a hypothesis 134 Specifying your argument or answer: the nuts and bolts 139 The components of a hypothesis 140 Variables 140 Relationships 142 Conceptualization and operationalization 143 Concepts and concept formation: what are you talking about? 144 Concept formation 144 Conceptualizing ‘power’: the search for theoretical utility 145 Conceptualizing ‘democracy’: mediating between coherence and differentiation 147 Operational definitions: how will you know it when you see it? 149 Illustration: Lenin’s explanation of the First World War 150 Answering normative questions 152 Empirical and normative research 152 Empirical and normative questions, answers, and methods 154 Conclusions 155 Questions 156 Guide to Further Reading 156 References 157 6 Research Design 159 Chapter Summary 159 Introduction 159 Basic principles of research design 161 Types of research design 163 Experimental designs 163 Cross-sectional and longitudinal designs 165 Comparative designs 167 Historical designs 168 Types of research, types of design 170 Data-gathering strategies: how the data are collected 171 Questionnaires and surveys 172
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