University of Warwick

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES


INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS

(PO 102)

MODULE GUIDE 2005/6

MODULE DIRECTORS

Professor Wyn GrantProfessor Zig Layton-Henry

Room B1.06 (Social Studies)Room B0.08 (Social Studies)

E-mail: -mail:

Office Hours: Mon 2-3; Thurs 2-3Office Hours: Wed 10-11; Thurs 11-12

Tel: 02476 523720Tel: 02476 572858

Contents

Page

Introduction1

Aims and learning objectives2

How this module is organised3

Assessed essays and project report4

Module requirements6

The Warwick skills certificate7

Reading and researching8

Seminar discussion topics and reading lists9

Introduction

Research Methods in Political Science is an introductory module to the research process in Political Science. It is a core module for all first-year students taking Politics, and Politics with International Studies. The module is structured around the following topics:

•the nature of the discipline of Political Science

•social surveys and election studies

•the process of research design

•the role of theory in the research process

•focus groups

•elite interviewing

•participant observation

•ethical problems in social research

•the use of the internet in political research

Lecturer/tutor availability

You are encouraged to consult your seminar tutors during their specified office hours about any questions or problems you may have. The module directors are also available for you to consult. If you are unable to come in office hours, please make an appointment by email. The module directors and tutor are as follows:

•Professor W Grant, Module Director, Room B1.06, Social Studies

Office hours:Mondays 2.00 pm – 3.00 pm; Thursdays 2.00 pm – 3.00 pm

email:

Tel: 523720

•Professor Z Layton-Henry, Module Director, Room B0.08, Social Studies

Office hours: Wednesdays 10.00 am - 11.00 am; Thursdays 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

email:

Tel: 72858

•Justin Greaves, Module Tutor

Details tba

Organisation of the lectures and seminars

The module is taught through one weekly lecture and one weekly seminar. The lectures take place on Wednesdays at 9.00-10.00 am in room Library 1. The lectures provide an introduction and overview of the topic under discussion and the seminars explore the arguments in more detail and with reference to key texts in Political Science. Seminar groups and times are arranged in Week I and posted on the first-year noticeboard.

Aims and learning objectives

Aims

The module will:

  • Offer an introduction to the development of Political Science as a discipline and explain the defining characteristics of an academic discipline.
  • Introduce the principal qualitative research methods and techniques used in Political Science and their advantages and limitations.
  • Identify some of the main ethical problems that arise in Political Science research.
  • Analyse how effectively different research methods have been used in major academic publications in Political Science and Sociology.

Learning objectives

  • To appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of the principal research methods used in the study of Politics.
  • Be familiar with the process of research design and the major stages that are involved in designing a research proposal.
  • To understand the ethical dilemmas that arise in the research process and strategies available for resolving them.
  • To develop presentation skills as a result of the requirement for prepared work to be presented in seminars to stimulate group discussions.
  • To acquire enhanced capability to use the Internet for information gathering purposes.

How this module is organised

Weekly lectures provide a general overview of the subject matter of the module. In addition, in terms of the essays on declining turnout in British elections and project reports on the effectiveness of pressure groups (see pages 4-6), they provide an in-depth analysis of some of the key issues arising in relation to each topic.

Weekly seminars provide an opportunity for detailed discussion of the lecture topics and later in this module booklet, along with the individual reading lists for each topic, we also provide a list of key questions to help you to prepare for the seminars. Please regard the seminars as an opportunity to raise anything that you have not understood in the lectures.

The lecture topics will cover the following themes:

Autumn term

  1. Welcome, introduction and administration
  2. The discipline of politics
  3. Models of voting behaviour
  4. Research design
  5. The 2005 British General Election and the Downs model of voting
  6. Reading week
  7. Researching turnout in recent British general elections
  8. Research design: real life example
  9. Social surveys in political research
  10. The role of theory in the research process
Spring Term
  1. Questionnaire design and attitude scaling
  2. Participant observation
  3. Ethical issues in social research
  4. Elite interviewing
  5. Focus groups
  6. Reading week
  7. Documentary analysis
  8. Using the internet for research
  9. Researching pressure groups (1)
  10. Researching pressure groups (2) (Guest lecture)
Summer Term
  1. Researching pressure groups (3)

Assessed essays and project report

During the year you will prepare two assessed essays, and one project report as follows:

Essay 1 (approx 2,500 words to be submitted by 12 noon on Thursday 24 November 2005)

Either:What are the distinctive features of the discipline of politics in Britain and the United States?

or:How important is research design in the development of a research project?

or:Why did turnout decline substantially between the British general elections of 1997 and 2001 and recover little in 2005? Why is there such a strong contrast between the turnout of the youngest and oldest cohorts of voters?

or:How far does the Downs model of voting help to explain the result of the British General Election of 2005?

Essay 2 (approx 2,500 words to be submitted by 12 noon on Thursday 23 February 2006)

Either:Why is elite interviewing regarded as a research technique of particular relevance to politics? Discuss its particular strengths and limitations in relation to political research.

or:What challenges face the political scientist in the use of documentary sources of evidence?

or:Critically assess the research methods used in one of the following:

a)Whyte, W.F., Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum, fourth edition, University of California Press, 1993.

b)Burton, F., The Politics of Legitimacy: Struggles in a Belfast Community, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978.

c)Humphreys, L., The Tearoom Trade, Duckworth, 1970.

d)Okely, J., The Traveller Gypsies, CambridgeUniversity Press, 1983.

e)Taylor, A., Women Drug Users: An Ethnography of a Female Injecting Community Clarendon Press, 1993.

Project report (approx. 3,000 words to be submitted by 12 noon on Thursday 4 May 2006)

The project is to gather data from the Internet and use it for analytical purposes. First, you should select a British or EU level pressure group that it is of interest to you. (For the purposes of this study, a pressure group is an organisation that seeks to influence government policy). Second, you should check that this pressure group has a web site. You should then write a report on the following:

i)What does the web site cover? How useful is it to someone trying to find out about the organisation? What improvements would you suggest in either design or content?

ii)How effective does the pressure group appear to be? What are the main factors, which make it more or less effective? (For this part of the question you may need to use material other than on the group’s web site, including accessing other web sites. You will be given credit for discussing the methodological problems that arise in the study of pressure group effectiveness).

Marking and schedule adherence

Marks will be split as follows:

Essay 130% of total

Essay 235% of total

Project report35% of total

Should you not obtain a pass mark (40) in this module you will be required to sit a timed examination.

Module requirements

Please note that on this module you are required to submit all three pieces of assessed work. A failure to do so (unless there are medical or other extenuating circumstances) will lead to the return of a mark of 0 for the module.

Essays will incur a deduction of three percentage points for each twenty-four hour period that they are late. Extensions will only be given on production of medical evidence or for other good reasons such as serious family problems.

Requests for extensions should be referred to Professor Zig Layton-Henry, Room B0.08, ext. 72858, email:

Rule 13

‘Failure to attend prescribed classes or to complete prescribed course work may result in a student being required to submit additional assessed work, or to sit a written examination in place of submitted coursework, or in the student being required to withdraw from his/her course of study.’

(Regulation 13.1, (Section 1), University Calendar)

Referencing and plagiarism

There are severe penalties for cheating of any kind in all forms of University test. Plagiarism is a form of cheating, as it attempts to acquire a benefit from the work of others unfairly. The Department’s policy on plagiarism is fully explained the PAIS Undergraduate Handbook, available both in hard copy and on the PAIS website. The Handbook explains how the University’s published regulation may be accessed on the web. If you are in any doubt about what constitutes plagiarism, you should consult your personal tutor or module director before submitting written work.

The Warwick Skills Certificate (WSC)

This a University of Warwick qualification designed to develop your competence and confidence in a range of essential graduate-level skills. Taking the WSC will help you to improve skills you already have and develop new ones. It is a free-standing accredited programme, and can be taken in addition to your degree programme.

There is a wide range of modules to choose from and you can select the combination that is right for you. You need to complete six modules to gain the whole award, but you can take as many or as few as you like in any year, and providing you complete these successfully, they will appear on your transcript and you can include them in your CV.

Further information and registration details on the Warwick Skills Certificate can also be found at

Reading and researching

Subject to the legal requirements of copyright law, copies of all core reading are available in the Student Reserve Collection (SRC) in the Library. In the event that a reading cannot be placed in the SRC for legal reasons, alternative arrangements will be made. In any event, if a core reading is not available in the SRC you should consult your tutor immediately.

Key module text

We expect all students to purchase the module textbook:

Burnham, P., Gilland, K., Grant, W. and Layton-Henry, Z., Research Methods in Politics, Palgrave, 2004.

You may also find the following books helpful (copies should be available second hand):

Bryman, A., Social Research Methods, Oxford University Press, 2001.

May, T., Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process, third edition, Open University Press, 2002.

Other useful texts

Bell, C. and Newby, H., Doing Sociological Research, Allen and Unwin, 1977.

Bell, C. and Roberts, H., Social Researching: Politics, Problems, Practice, Routledge Kegan Paul, 1984.

Harrison, L. Political Research, Routledge, 2001.

Marsh, D. and Stoker, S., Theory and Methods in Political Science, Macmillan, 1995.

Moon, N., Opinion Polls: History, Theory and Practice, Manchester University Press, 1999.

Seminar discussion topics and reading lists

Each seminar group will draw up its own seminar programme to synchronise with the lecture programme. Copies of the seminar programme will be distributed to each member of the group. The order of topics will therefore differ between groups and may differ from the order of topics listed below and on the following pages. This approach helps to reduce pressure on library resources.

Term 1, Week 1: Welcome, introduction and administration

Term 1, Week 2: The discipline of politics

Seminar discussion topics

  • How can an academic discipline be defined?
  • What are the key characteristics of American Political Science?
  • How does British Political Science compare with American?
  • Does an academic discipline need a mission?

Core reading

Burnham, P., Gilland, K., Grant, W. and Layton-Henry, Z., Research Methods in Politics, Palgrave, 2004, Ch.1.

Kenny, M., ‘The Case for Disciplinary History: Political Studies in the 1950s and 1960s’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, vol.6, 2004, 565-83.

Dreijmanis, J., ‘Political Science in the United States: The Discipline and the Profession’, Government and Opposition, vol.18, 1983, 194-217.

Adcock, R. and Bevir, M., The History of Political Science’, Political Studies Review, vol.3, no.1, January 2005.

Hayward, J., Berry, B. and Brown, A. (eds.), The British Study of Politics in the Twentieth Century, Chapters 1 and 14.

Kavanagh, D., ‘British Political Science in the inter-war years: the emergence of the founding fathers’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, vol.5, 4, 2003, 594-613.

Somit, A. and Tannenhaus, J., The Development of American Political Science.

Waldo, D., ‘Political Science: tradition, discipline, profession, science enterprise’ in Greenstein, F. and Polsby, N., Handbook of Political Science, vol. 7.

Further reading

Blondel, J., The Discipline of Politics.

Blondel, J., Thinking Politically.

Daguerre, A., ‘Murder by Numbers: The Slow Death of French Political Science’, European Political Science (EPS), 3.3, Summer 2004.

Dearlove, J., ‘The Political Science of British Politics’, Parliamentary Affairs, 1982, 436-54.

Easton, D., The Development of Political Science.

Finifter, A.W., ‘APSR Editor Responds’,

Hayward, J. and Norton, P., The Political Science of British Politics.

Mackenzie, W.J.M., The Study of Political Science Today.

Marsh, D. and Stoker, G., Theory and Methods in Political Science.

Morton, R.B., Methods and Models: a Guide to the Empirical Analysis of Formal Models in Political Science.

Norton, R ., Retrospective Reflections.

Political Science and Politics (also known as PS), No.4., December 2000, ‘An Open Letter to the APSA Leadership and Members’ and related articles on the ‘”perestroika” movement in American political science, 735-41.

Stark, A., ‘Why Political Scientists Aren’t Public Intellectuals’, Political Science and Politics (SPS), vol.xxxv, September 2002.

Symposium on ‘Shaking Thing Up? Thoughts about the Future of Political Science’, Political Science and Politics, vol.xxxv, June 2002.

Term 1, Week 3: Models of voting behaviour

Seminar discussion topics

  • Distinguish between sociological and psychological models of voting behaviour. What are their advantages and limitations?
  • What are the main features of economic and rational choice models? How realistic are they?
  • How do models help in the analysis of voting behaviour?

Core reading

Evans, J., Voters and Voting: An Introduction, Sage, 2004.

Heath, A., Jowell, R. and Curtice, J., Understanding Political Change: The British Voter 1964-87, Pergamon, 1993.

Blais, A. and Dobrzynska, A., ‘Turnout in Electoral Democracies’, European Journal of Political Research , 1998.

Sanders, D., ‘The Economy and Voting’, Parliamentary Affairs, 2001.

Sanders, D., ‘Conservative incompetence, labour responsibility and the feelgood factor: why the economy failed to save the Conservatives in 1997’, Electoral Studies, 1999.

Further reading

Berelson, B. and Mcphee, W., Voting: A study of opinion formation in a presidential election, Chicago University Press, 1954.

Butler, D., and Stokes, D., Political Change in Britain, Macmillan 1971.

Campbell, A., Converse, P., Miller, W. and Stokes, D., The American Voter, John Wiley, 1960.

Downs, A., An Economic Theory of Democracy, Harper Row, 1957.

Lewis-Beck, M. and Paldam, M., ‘Economic Voting: An Introduction’, Electoral Studies, 2000.

Nice, N., Verba, S. and Petrocik, J., The Changing American Voter, HarvardUniversity Press, 1976.

Term 1, Week 4: Research design: an analysis of the research process

Seminar discussion topics

  • Is there an ideal model of research design?
  • How valuable is the research wheel as a model of research design?
  • Does research design help or hinder the process of research?

Core reading

Burnham, P., Gilland, K., Grant, W. and Layton-Henry, Z., Research Methods in Politics, Palgrave, 2004, ch.2.

Bryman, A., Social Research Methods, ch.2.

Further reading

Bartov, V., ‘Research Design – A Rough Guide’, in Burnham, P. (ed.), Surviving the Research Process in Politics.

Burgess, R., Research Methods, 1993.

Kumar, R., Research Metholology: A Step by Step Guide for Beginners, London, Sage, 1996.

Miller, D.C., Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement, 1970.

Punch, K., Introduction to Social Research: A Guide to Quantitative and Qualitative Research.

Shipman, M., The Limitations of Social Research.

Shively, P., The Craft of Political Research, Prentice Hall, 1974.

Term 1, Week 5: Researching the General Elections of 2001 and 2005

Seminar discussion topics

  • Why did the Labour Party win the General Election of 2005?
  • Why did the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats fail to achieve a breakthrough at the 2005 General Election?
  • Is the electorate alienated from the electoral process?
  • How useful are models of voting behaviour in explaining the 2005 General Election result?

Core reading on the 2005 General Election

Norris, P., and Wlezien, C., Britain Votes 2005, OxfordUniversity Press, 2005.

Worcester, R.M and Mortimore, R., Explaining Labour’s Landslip, Politicos (forthcoming 2006).

Butler, D. and Kavanagh, D., The British General Election of 2005, Macmillan (forthcoming 2006).

Core reading on the 2001 General Election

Butler, D. and Kavanagh, D., The British General Election of 2001, Macmillan, 2002.

Downs, A., An Economic Theory of Democracy, Harper Row, 1957.

Grant, W., Economic Policy in Britain, Palgrave, 2002, ch.7.

Putnam, R.D., Bowling Alone, especially Chapter 2 and Section III.

Robertson, D., A Theory of Party Competition, Wiley, 1972, ch.2.

Worcester, R.M and Mortimore, R., Explaining Labour’s Second Landslide, Politicos, 2002.

Term 1, Week 6: Reading week

Term 1, Week 7: Researching turnout in recent elections

Seminar discussion topics

  • Why did turnout fall so dramatically in the 2001 General Election?
  • Why did turnout rise only slightly in the General Election of 2005?
  • Are young voters alienated from the political system?
  • How can participation in elections be improved?

Core reading

Downs, A., An Economic Theory of Democracy, Harper Row, 1957.

Pattie, C. and Johnston, R., ‘A Low Turnout Landslide: Abstention at the British General Election of 1997’, Political Studies, vol.49 (2001), 286-305.

Denver, D., Elections and Voters in Britain, ch.2, ‘Turnout: Why People Vote (or Don’t).

Worcester, R. and Mortimore, R., Explaining Labour’s Second Landslide, Politicos, 2002, ch.2.