Research Design in Political Science How to Practice what they Preach

by Gschwend, Thomas; Schimmelfennig, Frank

• ISBN13: 9780230301276
• ISBN10: 0230301274
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-08-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

When embarking on a new research project students face the same core research design issues. This volume provides readers with practical guidelines for both qualitative and quantitative designs, discussing the typical trade-offs involved in choosing them and is rich in examples from real research.

Author Biography

Thomas Gschwend is Professor of Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences, Center for Doctoral Studies Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Mannheim, Germany His work has been published inter alia in Political Analysis, British journal of Political Science Electoral Studies and the European Journal of Political Research. Frank Schimmelferinig is Professor or European Polities ETH Zurich, Centre for Comparative and international Studies Switzerland. His work on European integration has been published inter alia, in Comparative Political Studies. European Union Politics. International Organization, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Journal of European Public Policy.

Table of Contents

Designing Research in Political Science; T.Gschwend & F.Schimmelfennig
Increasing the Relevance of Research Questions; M.Lehnert, B.Miller & A.Wonka
Concept Specification in Political Science Research; A.Wonka
Typologies in Social Inquiry; M.Lehnert
Making Measures Capture Concepts; B.Miller
Achieving Comparability of Secondary Data; J.Rathke
Dealing Effectively with Selection Bias in Large-n Research; J.Thiem
Case Selection and Selection Bias in Small-n Research; D.Leuffen
Selecting Independent Variables; U.Sieberer
Discriminating among Rival Explanations: Some Tools for Small-n Researchers; A.Dür
Falsification in Theory-Guided Empirical Social Research; D.De Bièvre
Lessons for the Dialogue between Theory and Data; T.Gschwend & F.Schimmelfennig