University of Illinois, Chicago
Thursdays 6:00 to 8:30 PM
Office Hours: T-Th 4-6 p.m.
E-mail: efc152@nwu.edu
In 1904, Max Weber gave the word imputation a peculiar meaning. He thought that all the elements of the world were chaotically distributed and that theories provided a tool to force some answers out of this chaos. The researcher’s question imposed –imputed- one answer out of many possibilities and created research facts out of an anarchic world. Thus, the idea was not to unveil a true world but to generate a researchable world.
Often, as it was in Weber’s case, the main problem of research is to produce “good” questions in searching for “good” answers (good interpreted as scientific, systematic, meaningful, intriguing, counter-intuitive, and so on and so forth). In other words, to transform the intuitions about the “true” world into research programs about the world. This course will introduce you to the process of transforming your research intuitions into research programs and your ‘gut critiques’ into methodological critiques. In order to achieve these goals, we will simultaneously discuss different methodological designs and produce and defend our own research designs.
The first three weeks of classes will be more analytical in nature. They will provide basic analytical concepts about research models, forms of explanation, descriptive and inferential statements, operationalization, validity, etc. After that, every week will include readings on specific methods and examples from different authors. These readings will fuel discussion and provide ‘hands-on’ methodological guides for your own research.
As in any seminar, informed participation, interesting anecdotes and a slow and painful dissection of the subject matter is required. You should be ready to comment on the readings every week. Also, you will need to provide a one time ten-minute commentary to help trigger discussion.
Grade will be based on two papers, two assignments, your presentation, and your participation.
20% First Paper (Oct.22): Prelim type paper (One essay).
40% Final Paper (Dec.3): Research Proposal.
5% Assignment (Oct.1): Research question to “operationalize”.
5% Assignment (Nov.19): Data-minning or case selection (your choice).
15% Presentation: Week # _____, Date:
15% Participation/Quizzes
Textbooks ordered for the course:
Gary King, Robert Keohane, & Sidney Verba, Designing Social Inquiry, Princeton, 1994.
Daniel Little, Varieties of Social Explanation, Westview, 1991.
Charles Ragin, Constructing Social Research, Pine Forgeview, 1994.
All the other readings are together in a Coursepack.
King et.al. Chapter 1, Ragin Chapter 2 and 3, Collier “Translating quantitative methods for qualitative researchers”, Caporaso “Research Design, Falsification and the qualitative-quantitative disputation”
King et. al. Chapter 2, Leave and March “An introduction to Models in the Social Sciences”. Susan Herbst “Quantification and Rationality” and “Numbers and Symbolic Politics”.
Little Chapter 2, King Chapter 3, Jon Elster “Mechanisms” “Rational Choice”, Adam Przeworski “Democracy”, Muller and Segison “Civic Culture and Democracy”.
Little Chapter 3, Barry Weingast “The Political Foundations of Democracy and the Rule of Law”, George Tsebelis “Nested Games”, Dennis Chong “All-or-nothing games in the Civil Rights Movement”, Donald Green and Ian Shapiro “The nature of Rational Choice Theory” and “Methodological Pathologies”.
Week 6 (Oct. 1): Statistical Regularities and Irregularities
Theodore M. Porter “The rise of Statistical Thinking”, Little Chapters 8 and 9, Leamer “Statistical Searches”.
King et. al. Chapter 4, King and Gelman “Enhancing Democracy Through Legislative Redistricting”, Charles Pattie et.al “Winning the Local Vote”, Stephen Magee “Three simple test of the Stolper Samuelson Theorem”, D. Cameron “The Expansion of the Public Economy”.
Week 8 (Oct. 15): Experiments and Publics: Describing Opinions and producing Theories.
Milton Lodge et. al. “The Responsive Voter”, Iyengar and Kinder “Pathways to Knowleadge” and “The Agenda Setting Effect”. Denise Powers & James Cox “Echoes from the Past”, Vicki Morwitz & Carol Pluzinski “Do Polls Reflect Opinions or Do Opinions Reflect Polls?”
Week 9 (Oct. 22): Comparing Aggregates, Inferring Particularities: Units and Levels of Analysis.
King “Ecological inference”, Michael Herron “Aggregate Voting Data and Implied Spatial Voting”, Mohan Penubarti and Alexander Schuessler “Inferring Micro-from Macrolevel Change”.
Week 10 (Oct. 29): The Comparative Method: Case Selection and Design.
Ragin Chapter 5, Doug Dion “Evidence and Inference in the Comparative Study”, Richard Locke & Kathleen Thelen “Apples and Oranges Revisited”, Giovanni Sartori “Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics”, David Collier & James Mahon “Conceptual ‘Stretching’ Revisited”.
Week 11 (Nov. 5): Area Studies vs. Cross-Sectional Comparative Analysis.
Robert Bates “Area Studies and the Discipline: A Useful Controversy?”, Ragin Chapter 4, C. Geertz “ Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”, R. Rogowski “Political Cleavages and Changing Exposure to Trade”.
Week 12 (Nov. 12): Historical Approaches and Comparative Historical Analysis.
Katheleen Thelen and Sven Steinmo “Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics”, Ian Lustick “History, Historiography, and Political Science”, Theda Skockpol “Emerging Agendas and recurrent Strategies in Historical Sociology”.
King et.al. Chapter 5 and 6., Barbara Geddes “How the Cases you Choose Affect the Answers you Get”.
Week 14 (Nov. 26): Thanksgiving Weekend.
Week 15 (Dec. 3): Review and Final Remarks.