The Fundamentals of Political Science Research

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.

Table of Contents:
1. The scientific study of politics; 2. The art of theory building; 3. Evaluating causal relationships; 4. Research design; 5. Measurement; 6. Descriptive statistics and graphs; 7. Statistical inference; 8. Bivariate hypothesis testing; 9. Bivariate regression models; 10. Multiple regression models I: the basics; 11. Multiple regression models II: crucial extensions; 12. Multiple regression models III: applications; Appendix A: critical values of chi-square; Appendix B: critical values of t; Appendix C: the Λ link function for binomial logit models; Appendix D: the Φ link function for binomial probit models.

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 American Journal of Political Science, 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 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.

Review :
"Many do not fully appreciate that the world is in the midst of a grand march of quantification through areas of human knowledge. As the rapidly improving tools of measurement, inference, and science are adapted to each area, automated statistical algorithms and well designed research vastly outperform casual human judgment. Given the numerous self-proclaimed political experts and pundits vying for media attention, some people may be surprised that science has even come to the study of government and politics. In The Fundamentals of Political Science Research, Kellstedt and Whitten not only set the record straight; they provide an interesting and accessible introduction to this exciting area, so students can better understand claims about the political world and even begin to make discoveries on their own." - Gary King, Harvard University