did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

We're the #1 textbook rental company. Let us show you why.

9780761951032

Doing Research in Political Science : An Introduction to Comparative Methods and Statistics

by ; ;
  • ISBN13:

    9780761951032

  • ISBN10:

    0761951032

  • Format: Paperback
  • Copyright: 1999-03-01
  • Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd

Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.

Purchase Benefits

List Price: $48.95 Save up to $12.24
  • Buy Used
    $36.71
    Add to Cart Free Shipping Icon Free Shipping

    USUALLY SHIPS IN 2-4 BUSINESS DAYS

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

Summary

Students of political science will welcome this accessible introduction to methods and statistics. The authors introduce the main theories and methodologies employed from across the social sciences in understanding and doing comparative political research. They outline the importance of the relationship of theory and method to empirical analytical research; introduce both basic descriptive and advanced multivariate and explanatory statistical techniques; and demonstrate the application of these methods and techniques to a number of research questions drawn from contemporary themes and issues in political science. Incorporating summary questions, practice exercises, glossary and further reading sections throughout, Doing Research in Political Science provides an invaluable step by step guide to doing political research.

Table of Contents

Preface
PART I COMPARATIVE METHODOLOGY
Hans Keman
The Comparative Approach and Political Science
Introduction
1(5)
The comparative approach to political and social science: theory and method
6(9)
Developing empirical-analytical comparative analysis
15(3)
How you can use the book
18(1)
Endmatter
19(2)
The Comparative Approach: Theory and Method
Introduction
21(2)
Delineating the comparative approach: scope of comparison and research questions
23(3)
Comparative research and the relation between politics and society
26(5)
Modes of explanation by means of comparative analysis: the need to control the context
31(2)
The core subject and the comparative approach: politics and society
33(6)
Endmatter
39(2)
The Art of Comparing: Developing A Research Design
Introduction
41(2)
The problem of variables, cases and interpretations
43(6)
The role of space and time
49(6)
Developing a Research Design
55(13)
Concepts, definitions and operationalization
59(1)
Conceptual and operational definitions
60(2)
Extensional and intensional definitions
62(4)
Levels of measurement
66(2)
Organizing and collecting data
68(2)
Conclusion
70(1)
Endmatter
70(5)
PART II STATISTICS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
Jan Kleinnijenhuis
Concepts, Cases, Data and Measurement
Data and data collection in political science
75(4)
Data obtained from official statistical agencies
75(1)
Verbal and visual accounts, content analysis
76(2)
Questionnaries and surveys
78(1)
Sampling and the basics of statistical testing
79(3)
Statistical inference from a random sample
80(1)
Random samples and non-random samples
81(1)
Operationalization and measurement: linking data with concepts and units
82(3)
Handling missing data
84(1)
Criteria to evaluate the quality of operationalization and measurements
85(5)
Multiple indicators: the scalability (reliability) problem
88(2)
Scalability analysis and cluster analysis
90(22)
The cumulative scale: Guttman scale and Loevinger's H
93(3)
Likert scale and Cronbach's alpha
96(2)
Principal components: differently weighted indicators to increase discriminatory power
98(3)
Factor analysis
101(3)
Digression: an unknown number of dimensions
104(3)
Unfolding analysis
107(2)
Hierarchial cluster analysis
109(2)
Summary
111(1)
Summary
112(1)
Endmatter
112(4)
Explorative and Descriptive Statistics
The univariate distribution of a nominal variable
116(3)
Measures of central tendency for nominal variables: the mode
117(1)
Measures of dispersion for nominal variables: entropy and the Herfindahl-index
117(2)
The univariate distribution of ordinal, interval and ratio variables
119(4)
Measures of central tendency
119(2)
Measures of dispersion
121(2)
The shape of the entire distribution of a variable with interval measurement
123(1)
Relationships between variables with nominal measurement levels
123(5)
The Chi-square measure of association in a cross table
127(1)
The bivariate distribution of two ordinal, interval or ratio variables
128(11)
Exploring the bivariate distribution: the scattergram
129(2)
Bivariate regression analysis
131(8)
The relation between an interval or ratio variable and a nominal variable
139(6)
An interval variable and a bivariate nominal variable: the comparison of two means
140(1)
Analysis of variance: an interval variable by a nominal variable with j values
141(4)
Populations, samples and inferential statistics
145(9)
The urn model
145(2)
Unbiasedness, efficiency and robustness of an estimator
147(2)
The general procedure used in hypothesis testing
149(1)
Four common probability distributions of test statistics: z, t, χ2 and F
150(3)
Degrees of freedom
153(1)
Commonly used statistical tests
154(9)
The univariate nominal distribution
154(1)
The univariate interval distribution
155(4)
The bivariate distribution of two nominal variables
159(1)
The bivariate distribution of two interval variables
160(1)
The bivariate distribution of an interval variable by a nominal variable
161(1)
Sense and nonsense of statistical tests
162(1)
Summary
163(1)
Endmatter
164(4)
Multivariate Analysis and Causal Inference
Causality and multivariate relations
168(4)
Pure additivity, intervention, spurious correlation and interaction
169(1)
Association and causal effect
170(1)
Endogeneous and exogeneous variables and the identification of causal models
171(1)
An overview of multivariate data analysis techniques
172(1)
The case-oriented approach
173(4)
Nominal dependent and independent variables: cross table elaboration
177(4)
Cross table elaboration
179(2)
Nominal dependent variable, interval independent variables
181(5)
Discriminant analysis example: explaining the type of government
181(5)
Interval dependent variable, nominal independent variables: analysis of variance
186(2)
Interval dependent and independent variables: regression analysis
188(32)
The multiple regression model
189(3)
Assumptions of the Ordinary Least Squares estimation method
192(3)
The outlier problem
195(2)
Heteroscedasticity
197(2)
Multicollinearity
199(1)
Direct causes, intervening variables and antecedent variables
200(1)
Interactions in the multivariate regression model: multicollinearity
201(3)
Time series analysis: the autocorrelation and problem
204(8)
Pooled time series analysis: autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity
212(6)
Reciprocal causal relations: linear structural equation models
218(2)
Epilogue
220(1)
Endmatter
220(7)
PART III DOING POLITICAL RESEARCH
Paul Pennings
How Problems Arise
Processes of electoral change
227(10)
The problem of change
227(2)
Measuring electoral change
229(3)
Modeling change
232(5)
Processes of party change
237(14)
The role of parties
237(2)
Parties and ideology scales
239(5)
Parties and issues
244(3)
Public opinion and party responsiveness
247(4)
Conclusions
251(1)
Endmatter
252(4)
How Decisions Are Made
Introduction
256(3)
Types of democracies
259(5)
Party systems
264(3)
Cabinet formation and duration
267(11)
Institutions, economic growth and the public sector
278(5)
Interest intermediation
283(4)
Federalism, centralism and institutional autonomy
287(3)
Presidentialism
290(6)
Conclusions
296(2)
Endmatter
298(4)
How Problems Are Solved
Introduction
302(2)
Welfare-related outputs and performance
304(3)
Actors and socio-economic problem-solving
307(6)
Institutions and socio-economic problem-solving
313(9)
Electoral cycles and macro-economic policy
322(3)
Democratic performance
325(6)
Parties and accountability
331(5)
Outputs and outcomes in the international arena
336(3)
Conclusions
339(2)
Endmatter
341(4)
Appendix: Statistical tables 345(6)
Bibliography 351(12)
Index 363

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Rewards Program