Introduction to Political Inquiry

Duke University
Political Science 130

Introduction to Political Inquiry

Fall 2014

Lectures: MW 10:05 - 11:20 am, Gross Hall, Room 103

course website at

Prof. Tim Büthe

Dept. of Political Science
219Gross Hall

(919) 660-4365;

office hours: after each class andMondays, 11:30am - 12:30pm in the SSRI Café

Sections:

Thursdays: 4:55 - 5:45 pm,118Friedl Building

6:30 - 7:20 pm,304I Allen Building

Fridays:10:20 - 11:10 am,109 Social Sciences

12:00 - 12:50 pm,319 Gray Building

TAs:

Andy Ballard
; (517) 388-1392
office hours: Mondays, 12 - 1pm, 408A Old Chemistry

Josh Lerner
; (301) 651-6939
office hours: Fridays, 12-1pm, 408A Old Chemistry

Purpose

PS130 is an introduction to the systematic study of politicsas a social science. It is organized around major topicsin the study of domestic politics and international relations—and the key challenges that arise in trying to answer those questions. So we examine issues such as the relationship between inequality and democracy, political polarization in the United States,the development of political and judicial institutions in the Middle East, arms races and the "security dilemma"between countries, the sex (or gender?) of policymakers, and innovations in global governance.

Debates over these topics often turn on differences in how to conceptualize something as ubiquitous as power, how to measure core concepts such as democracy or rule of law, or how to gather and summarize unbiased, reliableinformation about the phenomenon in question. We will learn a number of useful tools for such descriptive inferences, which will put you in a stronger position to distinguish rhetorical flourishes from meaningful differences in election forecasts, political parties' policy positions, cross-national measures of political institutions, etc.

We then move from asking descriptive questions to asking more analytical ones, such as: Does it matter—for local public policy or inter-state militarized conflicts—whether policymakers are women or men? Why do some get-out-the-vote efforts increase voter turnout when others do not? Why does the U.S. Supreme Courts have the power to declare laws of Congress unconstitutional? What explains the allocation of foreign aid? Why do policies for AIDS prevention and treatment differ so much across countries? Why is public policy more responsive to the interests of some groups than others?

Political scientists seek to answer such questions by developing positive—as opposed to normative—theories of political phenomena and conducting empirical analyses to assess those explanations (though they may well have normative motivations for asking those questions, such as having a normative commitment to democracy or the rule of law). In examining prominent answers to a variety of important questions, we will focus on key problems of causal inference in social analysis and examine how political scientists deal with those problems. The course thus offers an introduction to a broad range of methods used in empirical inquiry in political science, including the assumptions underpinning those methods.

PS130 is intended as a true introductory course. Students are not expected (i.e., not required) to have taken any previous courses in Political Science, nor does the course have any prerequisites in math, statistics, or methods--though I do expect familiarity with standard high school algebra and a willingness to use it.

Requirements

The required readings and lectures for this course are complements, not substitutes. We will cover a substantial amount of material in lectures (and in some sections) that is not in the readings. Attendance—and active participation—is therefore crucial, including the ability to listen to, and constructively engage with, your peers.

Your grade will be based on class participation(25%),five short assignments (50%), and a final exam (25%). The participation grade will be based on participation in both lectures and sections, including providing input via some short surveys and answering questions using i>Clickers (see below). After the first week of classes, you may be absent from up to 4 lectures and 2 sections (for any reason) without an effect on your participation grade. Participation will be downgraded for additional absences unless all absences are due to a documented serious medical condition or required attendance at athletic events. The five short assignments, some of which may be small-group exercises, provide opportunities to apply the analytical tools that we will learn in PS130, in some cases to a question of each student's own choosing. The short assignments will be handed out about a week before they are due (due dates are listed in the syllabus below). The final exam is scheduled by the university's Registrar's Office, based on the class time for our course, for 25pm on Tuesday, Dec.9,2014 (see The exam will cover the entire course and will include an ID or short answer section that will test your command of the material from lectures and the required readings, but the main objective of the final exam is to provide you with an opportunity to show your understanding of the principles and methods of political analysis.

You are welcome—and I encourage you—to form study groups, but note that each student's graded written work must be individually produced, except for explicitly authorized small-group exercises.

Also, student may participate in the Political Science Experimental Research Subject Pool (PSRP)on a strictly voluntary basis for up to 3% extra credit. More information about this opportunity is available at If you wish to participate, please register at: by October10, 2014.

Readings

The books below are available for purchase at the Duke Bookstore, since we use numerous selections from them (one copy of each book is also on reserve at Perkins Library). Required readings that are not contained in these books are available online via Duke's electronic journal holdings (indicated by "online" below), or they are on electronic reserves (eres). Occasionally, areadingmay beavailable via the course website (cws).

PP:Pollock, Philip H. The Essentials of Political Analysis. 4th edition. Los Angeles: Sage, 2012.

LB:Bartels, Larry M. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.

B&M:Büthe, Tim and Walter Mattli. New Global Rulers: The Privatization of Regulation in the World Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.

EL:Lieberman, Evan S. Boundaries of Contagion: How Ethnic Politics Have Shaped Government Responses to AIDS. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.

In addition, the following supplemental text is on reserve as a "recommended" reading. Students who anticipate doing applied data analysis for research papers or a senior thesis beyond this course will surely find it useful, but you do not need to buy it for PS130:

Pollock, Philip H. Stata Companion to Political Analysis. 2nd edition. Los Angeles: Sage, 2010.

Required readings for each class are listed below. Unless I tell you otherwise, you should generally do them before the lecture for which they are assigned.

i>Clickers

To promote an active learning environment, I will regularly ask questions using i>Clickersto gather your answers,which allows everyone to participate with instantaneous interactive feedback (details about the technologycan be found at Some questions will have no "correct" answer and may simply be intended to foster discussion; others will seek to gauge your understanding of the material from lectures (and occasionally from readings). On the latter questions, you will generally be graded for your performance, but I will drop the 4 lowest scores to allow for absences or times when you forget to bring your clicker device to class, and the grading standard is not very strict (75% correct is considered full credit).

If you have a compatible mobile device (iOS or Android smartphone or tablet, or a laptop computer) and will bring it to every class, you can use the i>Clicker GO app, which is considerably cheaper than buying a conventional iClicker remote. Tocreate or access youri>Clicker GO account,sign up for a free 14-day trial of the i>Clicker GO app,or purchase a subscription to the app, go to Be sure to enter your core Duke NetID (usually your initials followed by a 2-3 digit number) into the "Student ID" field.

Otherwise, you need to purchase an iClicker2, which is available at the bookstore for various classes, as well as online from various sources. You need to register your iClicker2via the iclicker.com website (link on bottom right of their home page), so that your responsesare identifiable as your responses and so that I can give you credit for them. Be sure to use your core Duke NetID (usually your initials followed by a 2-3 digit number) as your student ID.

Please get and register for a clicker or get the i>Clicker GO app before our 2nd class. Answering clicker questions with another student's clicker (or asking another student to answer with your clicker) is cheating and a violation of the Duke Community Standard.

Statistical Software and Help

We will be using a statistical software called STATA for those parts of the course where we work with data (from descriptive statistics to regression). The software is available in most Duke computer labs, with the current version 13 scheduled to be installed throughout the Duke computer labs during the fall semester. If you want to install STATA on your own computer (which I recommend but do not require), I recommend you purchase a heavily discounted student license: a 6-months license for Small Stata (sufficient for PS130) for $35 at or a 1-year license for Stata S/E (more powerful and good until July 23, 2015) for $50-$55 via

The Social Science Research Institute (SSRI, on the second floor of Gross Hall) has a great help desk, staffed by statistical consultants who are available for walk-in help from 10am to 6pm Monday through Friday. Alexandra Cooper from SSRI, who manages the help desk, will give you an overview of this very valuable support resource during our class on September 3.

What IS Political SCIENCE?

Introductions (Mon, Aug. 25)

No assigned readings.

The Study of Politics as a Social Science (Wed, Aug. 27)

onlineParker, Roger. "Un Ballo in Maschera." In The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Available via Oxford Music Online
at

onlineVerdi, Giuseppe. Un Ballo in Maschera. Madrid (Spain): Teatro Real, 28 September 2008, available for streaming via Duke's subscription to Naxos Video Library:
Watch as much as you want, but required is only Act 3, Part 2, which starts at 1:47:20; it can be accessed by clicking on the "Chapters" tab on the right of the Naxos Video Library. Act 3, Part 2 corresponds to "chapters" 23 ("Forse la soglia attinse") through 28 ("Ella e pura"). I recommend watching in full screen mode, and unless your Italian is good enough, be sure to turn on English subtitles.

e-resWatts, Duncan J. ["Preface" (read) and Chapter 1 ("The Myth of Common Sense", skim) in:]Everything Is Obvious—Once You Know the Answer. New York: Crown Business, 2011: ix-xvi,3-29.

cwsWikipedia. [Excerpts from the Entry on:] "Science." From (accessed 1/6/2014). Please read the excerpt posted on the course website.

e-resDonovan, Todd and Kenneth Hoover. "Thinking Scientifically." In The Elements of Social Scientific Thinking. 11th edition. Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage, 2014: 1-11.

Complete the "Power Survey"
by Friday, Aug. 29, 8pm

DESCRIPTIVE INFERENCE

Power and Democracy: From Concepts to Measurements (Mon, Sep. 1)

onlineBaldwin, David A. "The Costs of Power." Journal of Conflict Resolution vol.15 no.2 (June 1971): 145-155.

PPPollock, Philip H. "Chapter 1: The Definition and Measurement of Concepts." In The Essentials of Political Analysis. 4th edition. Los Angeles: Sage, 2012: 6-22.