The Fundamentals of Political Science Research

Paul M. Kellstedt · Guy D. Whitten

Dec 2008 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

Paul M. Kellstedt's and Guy D. Whitten's The Fundamentals of Political Science Research provides an introduction to the scientific study of politics, supplying students with the basic tools needed to be both critical consumers and producers of scholarly research in political science. The book begins with a discussion of what it means to take a scientific approach to the study of politics. At the core of such an approach is the development of causal theories. Because there is no magic formula by which theories are developed, the authors present a series of strategies and develop an integrated approach to research design and empirical analyses that allows students to determine the plausibility of their causal theories. The text's accessible presentation of mathematical concepts and regression models with two or more independent variables is a key component to this process, along with the integration of examples from political science and the real world to help students grasp the fundamental concepts.

About the author

Paul M. Kellstedt is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the American Politics Program at Texas A&M University. He is the author of The Mass Media and the Dynamics of American Racial Attitudes (2003), which won the Goldsmith Book Prize. Professor Kellstedt is also the author or co-author of articles appearing in scholarly journals such as American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, and Political Analysis, as well as several book chapters. He has been an Academic Visitor at Nuffield College, Oxford, and a Harvard University Fellow in the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy in the Kennedy School of Government.

Guy D. Whitten is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the European Union Center of Excellence at Texas A&M University. He has published a variety of papers in scholarly journals, including the American Journal of Political Science, the British Journal of Political Science, and Electoral Studies. Professor Whitten serves on the editorial board of Electoral Studies and has previously served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Politics and Political Research Quarterly. He has been a visiting researcher at the University of Amsterdam and is a frequent instructor at the Summer School for Social Science Data Analysis and Collection at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom.