Comprehensive Study Guide: Theory and Methods in Political Science
Core Ontological and Epistemological Frameworks in Political Science
Ontology (The Theory of Being)
Asks the fundamental question: "What is the form and nature of reality?"
It distinguishes between whether a "real" world exists independently of our knowledge or if reality is a social construct.
Foundationalism (Objectivism/Realism): Posits that the world is composed of discrete objects with properties independent of the observer. Truth is objective and unconditional.
Anti-Foundationalism (Constructivism/Relativism): Views reality as local, specific, and socially constructed. Realities are not "true" but rather more or less informed/consistent. There is no social role for "reality" independent of the meaning attached to it by actors.
Epistemology (The Theory of Knowledge)
Asks: "What can we know about the world and how can we know it?"
Concerns the relationship between the knower and the known.
Positivism: Based on foundationalist ontology. Views social science as analogous to natural science. Aims to establish causal relationships and general laws through direct observation and empirical testing. Claims to be value-free and objective.
Realism: Shares foundationalist ontology but rejects the idea that all social phenomena are directly observable. Believes deep, unobservable structures (like patriarchy or class) have causal powers. Logic is "inference to the best explanation."
Interpretivism: Based on anti-foundationalist ontology. Focuses on the meaning of behavior and understanding (verstehen) rather than causal explanation. Acknowledges the "double hermeneutic" (the researcher's interpretation of the actors' interpretations).
Major Theoretical Approaches to Political Science
Behavioural Analysis
Focuses on observable behavior at individual or aggregate levels.
Insists that explanations must be susceptible to empirical testing and falsification.
Historically rooted in logical positivism but has evolved into "post-positivism" which recognizes that theory and observation are interdependent.
Strengths include replication, clarity of definitions, and systematic use of all relevant evidence rather than illustrative anecdotes.
Rational Choice Theory
Applies the methods of economics to politics.
Core assumptions: individuals are rational (select the best possible means to a goal) and self-interested.
Often uses formal mathematical modeling and game theory.
Spatial Models of Party Competition: Exemplified by the Downs perspective, where parties converge on the "median voter" to maximize votes.
Criticisms: Bounded rationality (people have limited processing capacity), the role of ideas/loyalty over self-interest, and poor empirical track record in some areas.
The Institutional Approach
Old Institutionalism: Focused on formal organizations, legal structures, and official constitutions. Described whole systems (liberal democracy vs. totalitarianism).
New Institutionalism: Defines institutions as "stable, recurring patterns of behavior" or the "rules of the game" (both formal and informal).
Sub-types: Normative (focus on logic of appropriateness), Rational Choice (focus on rules that solve collective action problems), and Historical (focus on path dependency and "critical junctures").
Constructivism and Interpretive Theory
Claims people act based on "social constructs": ideas, beliefs, norms, and identities.
Origins: Derived from Durkheim and Weber. Revived in the 1980s following the failure of IR theories to predict the end of the Cold War.
Mechanisms of Construction:
Socialization: Incremental, evolutionary spread of norms through repeated interaction.
Persuasion: Entrepreneurial carriers invent and "sell" new ideas to others.
Bricolage: Actors tinker with and recombine overlapping, sometimes contradictory, social constructs.
Political Psychology
Studies the interaction between personality, cognition, and political behavior.
Cognitive Dimension: How beliefs and historical analogies (e.g., "Munich") filter information.
Motivational Dimension: Personality traits (the "Big Five") and needs for power or achievement.
Social Dimension: Group dynamics and "groupthink" (deterioration of mental efficiency due to in-group pressures).
Feminism
Challenges the male-centric (androcentric) bias of traditional political science.
Re-conceptualizing Politics: The slogan "the personal is political" expanded the scope of study from the state to the domestic sphere and power relations between genders.
Gendering the State: Analyzing "gender regimes" within state institutions—how hierarchies and divisions of labor preserve gendered power.
Marxism
Analyzes the relationship between wage labor and capital.
World System Theory: Divides the global economy into Core, Periphery, and Semi-Periphery.
Hegemony (Neo-Gramscian): Focuses on how a dominant structural set of values permeates the international system to maintain order.
Methods and Research Design
The Logic of Research Design
Research is the process of solving puzzles (aberrant facts that contradict existing theory).
Scientific progress is a "three-cornered fight" between an old theory, a new fact, and a new theory.
Key Ingredients: A well-defined question, a constructed debate (literature review), and observable implications (what must I find if I am right vs. if they are right?).
Quantitative Methods
Descriptive Statistics: Measures of central tendency () and dispersion ().
Inferential Statistics: Testing relationships across a large sample () to infer population regularities.
Multivariate Analysis (OLS Regression): Controlling for multiple independent variables to check for spurious correlations.
Rules of Significance: Standard usage of the confidence level (p < 0.05).
Qualitative Methods
Prioritizes "thick description" and internal validity representing the depth of human experience.
Techniques: In-depth semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and ethnographic observation.
Discourse Analysis: Uncovering the power dynamics embedded in language and texts.
The Comparative Method
Used as a "natural experiment" when laboratory control is impossible.
Method of Difference: Comparing similar cases that differ in one key variable (Most Similar Systems Design).
Method of Agreement: Comparing different cases that share one key variable (Most Different Systems Design).
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): Using Boolean algebra to identify necessary and sufficient conditions for an outcome.
The Experimental Method
Involves manipulation (intervening in a real environment), control, and random assignment.
Laboratory Experiments: High internal validity but limited external validity (e.g., using students in a managed setting).
Field Experiments: Randomized trials in real-world settings (e.g., testing different "get out the vote" techniques).
Meta-Theoretical Issues of Stability and Change
Structure and Agency
Structuration Theory (Giddens): Structure and agency are a duality; structure is both the medium and outcome of social action.
Strategic-Relational Approach (Hay): Actors are self-reflective and strategic, acting within contexts that are strategically selective (favoring certain strategies over others).
The Material and the Ideational
Thin Constructivism: Material factors prioritize causal logic but are interpreted through ideas.
Thick Constructivism: Ideas and constitutive logic prioritize the very definition of what is material (e.g., "Anarchy is what states make of it").
Conceptions of Time
Linear: Change happens at specific moments (Punctuated Equilibrium).
Non-linear: Change is arbitrary/accidental (Foucault).
Circadian: Change and stability are intersectional spirals (Adam).