The Scientific Study of Politics

Agenda Recap What is a science? Challenges of research in social science Discussion Guest Speaker

Recap of Thursday History of Political Science Different eras Trend towards more scientific methods Behavioralism Today 4-6 subfields Qualitative vs. Quantitative methods Normative vs. Non-normative (positive)

Epistemology How do we know what we know? EmpiricismObservational Empirical verification Objective Objective Verification Verification

Types of Research NormativeNon-normativeAppliedBasic/pure/recreational Normative applied- advocacy Normative basic- political theory Non-normative applied- engineering Non-normative basic- scientific inquiry

Characteristics of Scientific Knowledge Transmissible Scrutiny Scrutiny Replication Replication Empirical Generalization Explanatory

Explanatory Logical derivation of conclusion from general propositions and specific initial conditions. If X occurs, then we expect Y Causal explanation PredictiveProbabilistic

Theory A statement or series of statements that organize, explain, and predict knowledge. Empirically derived Broader than empirical generalization Provisional

Induction and Deduction Going from specific observation(s) to a principle or theory Deduction-Going from theory to specific observations Research is an interplay of two Deduction makes a good test of theory Make prediction from theory Look to empirical results

Is Social Science a Science?/Challenges Contentious issue PredictabilityMeasurementMisreporting Social desirability Social desirability Misremembering Misremembering Unconscious Unconscious

Challenges ComplexityConsistency Empirical Generalizations??

Discussion So, is political science a science? What about the challenges? What challenges do you think are the greatest?

For Thursday Research Ethics Links on class website Read Articles, UMN guide, poke around UMN site I will hand out paper assignments