Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics

by Edited by Ian Shapiro , Rogers M. Smith , Tarek E. Masoud

• ISBN13: 9780521539432
• ISBN10: 0521539439
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The study of politics seems endlessly beset by debates about method. At the core of these debates is a single unifying concern: should political scientists view themselves primarily as scientists, developing ever more sophisticated tools and studying only those phenomena to which such tools may fruitfully be applied? Or should they instead try to illuminate the large, complicated, untidy problems thrown up in the world, even if the chance to offer definitive explanations is low? Is there necessarily a tension between these two endeavours? Are some domains of political inquiry more amenable to the building up of reliable, scientific knowledge than others, and if so, how should we deploy our efforts? In this book, some of the world's most prominent students of politics offer original discussions of these pressing questions, eschewing narrow methodological diatribes to explore what political science is and how political scientists should aspire to do their work.

Table of Contents

Introduction: problems and methods in the study of politics Ian Shapiro, Rogers Smith and Tarek Masoud

1. Problems, methods and theories Ian Shapiro

2. Of problems and methods Rogers Smith

3. Political science as vocation Anne Norton

4. The politics of policy science Frances Fox Piven

5. The study of black politics and the practice of black politics Adolph Reed

6. External and internal explanation John Ferejohn

7. Lies, damned lies, and rational choice analyses Gary W. Cox

8. Problems and methods in political science Alan Ryan

9. An analytic narrative approach to puzzles and problems Margaret Levi

10. The methodical study of politics Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

11. The illusion of learning from observational research Donald Green

12. Concepts and commitments in the study of democracy Lisa Wedeen

13. Problems chasing methods or methods chasing problems? Rudra Sil

14. Method, problem, faith William E. Connolly

15. Provisionalism in the study of politics Elisabeth Ellis

Epilogue: What have we learned? Truman Bewley, Robert A. Dahl, John Mearsheimer and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph.