Module 1.3.

1 Research Topic in Political Science

This handout is designed to teach you

how to conduct original political science
research. While you won't be asked to
write a research paper, this handout
provides important information on the
'scientific' approach used by political
scientists. Pay particularly close attention
to the section that answers the question
'what is scientific about political science?'
If you were going to conduct research in
biology or chemistry, what would you do?
You would probably create a hypothesis,
and then design an experiment to test
your hypothesis. Based on the results of
your experiment, you would draw
conclusions. Political scientists follow
similar procedures. Like a scientist who
researches biology or chemistry, political
scientists rely on objectivity, data, and
procedure to draw conclusions. This
article explains the process of
operationalizing variables. Why is that an
important step in social science research?
Defining politics and political science
Political scientist Harold Laswell said it
best: at its most basic level, politics is the
struggle of "who gets what, when, how".
This struggle may be as modest as
competing interest groups fighting over
control of a small municipal budget or as
overwhelming as a military stand-off
between international superpowers.
Political scientists study such struggles,
both small and large, in an effort to
develop general principles or theories
about the way the world of politics works.
Think about the title of your course or re-
read the course description in your
syllabus. You'll find that your course
covers a particular sector of the large
world of "politics" and brings with it a set
of topics, issues, and approaches to
information that may be helpful to
consider as you begin a writing
assignment. The diverse structure of
political science reflects the diverse kinds
of problems the discipline attempts to
analyze and explain. In fact, political
science includes at least eight major sub-
fields:
 American politics examines political
behavior and institutions in the United
States.
 Comparative politics analyzes and
compares political systems within and
across different geographic regions.
 International relations investigates
relations among nation-states and the
 activities of international organizations
such as the United Nations, the World
Bank, and NATO, as well as international
actors such as terrorists, non-
governmental organizations (NGOs), and
multi-national corporations (MNCs).
 Political theory analyzes fundamental
political concepts such as power and
democracy and foundational questions,
like "How should the individual and the
state relate?"
 Political methodology deals with the
ways that political scientists ask and
investigate questions.
 Public policy examines the process by
which governments make public
decisions.
 Public administration studies the ways
that government policies are
 implemented.
 Public law focuses on the role of law and
courts in the political process.

What is scientific about political science?

Investigating relationships
Although political scientists are prone to
debate and disagreement, the majority
view the discipline as a genuine science.
As a result, political scientists generally
strive to emulate the objectivity as well as
the conceptual and methodological rigor
typically associated with the so-called
"hard" sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry,
and physics). They see themselves as
engaged in revealing the relationships
underlying political events and conditions.
Based on these revelations, they attempt
to state general principles about the way
the world of politics works. Given these
aims, it is important for political scientists'
writing to be conceptually precise, free
from bias, and well-substantiated by
empirical evidence. Knowing that political
scientists value objectivity may help you
in making decisions about how to write
your paper and what to put in it.
Political theory is an important exception
to this empirical approach. You can learn
more about writing for political theory
classes in the section "Writing in Political
Theory" below.
Building theories
Since theory-building serves as the
cornerstone of the discipline, it may be
useful to see how it works. You may be
wrestling with theories or proposing your
own as you write your paper. Consider
how political scientists have arrived at the
theories you are reading and discussing in
your course. Most political scientists
adhere to a simple model of scientific
inquiry when building theories. The key to
building precise and persuasive theories is
to develop and test hypotheses.
Hypotheses are statements that
researchers construct for the purpose of
testing whether or not a certain
relationship exists between two
phenomena. To see how political
scientists use hypotheses, and to imagine
how you might use a hypothesis to
develop a thesis for your paper, consider
the following example. Suppose that we
want to know whether presidential
elections are affected by economic
conditions. We could formulate this
question into the following hypothesis:
"When the national unemployment rate is
greater than 7 percent at the time of the
election, presidential incumbents are not
reelected".
Collecting data
In the research model designed to test
this hypothesis, the dependent variable
(the phenomenon that is affected by
other variables) would be the reelection
of incumbent presidents; the independent
variable (the phenomenon that may have
some effect on the dependent variable)
would be the national unemployment
rate. You could test the relationship
between the independent and dependent
variables by collecting data on
unemployment rates and the reelection of
incumbent presidents and comparing the
two sets of information. If you found that
in every instance that the national
unemployment rate was greater than 7
percent at the time of a presidential
election the incumbent lost, you would
have significant support for our
hypothesis.
However, research in political science
seldom yields immediately conclusive
results. In this case, for example, although
in most recent presidential elections our
hypothesis holds true, President Franklin
Roosevelt was reelected in 1936 despite
the fact that the national unemployment
rate was 17%. To explain this important
exception and to make certain that other
factors besides high unemployment rates
were not primarily responsible for the
defeat of incumbent presidents in other
election years, you would need to do
further research. So you can see how
political scientists use the scientific
method to build ever more precise and
persuasive theories and how you might
begin to think about the topics that
interest you as you write your paper.
Clear, consistent, objective writing
Since political scientists construct and
assess theories in accordance with the
principles of the scientific method, writing
in the field conveys the rigor, objectivity,
and logical consistency that characterize
this method. Thus political scientists avoid
the use of impressionistic or metaphorical
language, or language which appeals
primarily to our senses, emotions, or
moral beliefs. In other words, rather than
persuade you with the elegance of their
prose or the moral virtue of their beliefs,
political scientists persuade through their
command of the facts and their ability to
relate those facts to theories that can
withstand the test of empirical
investigation. In writing of this sort, clarity
and concision are at a premium. To
achieve such clarity and concision,
political scientists precisely define any
terms or concepts that are important to
the arguments that they make. This
precision often requires that they
"operationalize" key terms or concepts.
"Operationalizing" simply means that
important – but possibly vague or abstract
– concepts like "justice" are defined in
ways that allow them to be measured or
tested through scientific investigation.
Fortunately, you will generally not be
expected to devise or operationalize key
concepts entirely on your own. In most
cases, your professor or the authors of
assigned readings will already have
defined and/or operationalized concepts
that are important to your research. And
in the event that someone hasn't already
come up with precisely the definition you
need, other political scientists will in all
likelihood have written enough on the
topic that you're investigating to give you
some clear guidance on how to proceed.
For this reason, it is always a good idea to
explore what research has already been
done on your topic before you begin to
construct your own argument. (See our
handout on making an academic
argument.)
Example of an operationalized term
To give you an example of the kind of
"rigor" and "objectivity" political scientists
aim for in their writing, let's examine how
someone might operationalize a term.
Reading through this example should
clarify the level of analysis and precision
that you will be expected to employ in
your writing. Here's how you might define
key concepts in a way that allows us to
measure them.
We are all familiar with the term
"democracy". If you were asked to define
this term, you might make a statement
like the following: "Democracy is
government by the people". You would, of
course, be correct – democracy is
government by the people. But, in order
to evaluate whether or not a particular
government is fully democratic or is more
or less democratic when compared with
other governments, we would need to
have more precise criteria with which to
measure or assess democracy. Most
political scientists agree that these criteria
should include the following rights and
freedoms for citizens:
1stFreedom to form and join
organizations
2nd Freedom of expression
3rd Right to vote
4th Eligibility for public office
5th Right of political leaders to compete
for support
6th Right of political leaders to compete
for votes
7th Alternative sources of information
8th Free and fair elections
9th Institutions for making government
policies depend on votes and other
expressions of preference
By adopting these nine criteria, we now
have a definition that will allow us to
measure democracy. Thus, if you want to
determine whether Brazil is more
democratic than Sweden, you can
evaluate each country in terms of the
degree to which it fulfills the above
criteria.

What counts as good writing in political

science?
While rigor, clarity, and concision will be
valued in any piece of writing in political
science, knowing the kind of writing task
you've been assigned will help you to
write a good paper. Two of the most
common kinds of writing assignments in
political science are the research paper
and the theory paper.
Writing political science research papers
Your instructors use research paper
assignments as a means of assessing your
ability to understand a complex problem
in the field, to develop a perspective on
this problem, and to make a persuasive
argument in favor of your perspective. In
order for you to successfully meet this
challenge, your research paper should
include the following components: (1) an
introduction, (2) a problem statement, (3)
a discussion of methodology, (4) a
literature review, (5) a description and
evaluation of your research findings, and
(6) a summary of your findings. Here's a
brief description of each component.
In the introduction of your research
paper, you need to give the reader some
basic background information on your
topic that suggests why the question you
are investigating is interesting and
important. You will also need to provide
the reader with a statement of the
research problem you are attempting to
address and a basic outline of your paper
as a whole. The problem statement
presents not only the general research
problem you will address but also the
hypotheses that you will consider. In the
methodology section, you will explain to
the reader the research methods you
used to investigate your research topic
and to test the hypotheses that you have
formulated. For example, did you conduct
interviews, use statistical analysis, rely
upon previous research studies, or some
combination of all of these
methodological approaches?
Before you can develop each of the above
components of your research paper, you
will need to conduct a literature review. A
literature review involves reading and
analyzing what other researchers have
written on your topic before going on to
do research of your own. There are some
very pragmatic reasons for doing this
work. First, as insightful as your ideas may
be, someone else may have had similar
ideas and have already done research to
test them. By reading what they have
written on your topic, you can ensure that
you don't repeat, but rather learn from,
work that has already been done. Second,
to demonstrate the soundness of your
hypotheses and methodology, you will
need to indicate how you have borrowed
from and/or improved upon the ideas of
others.
By referring to what other researchers
have found on your topic, you will have
established a frame of reference that
enables the reader to understand the full
significance of your research results. Thus,
once you have conducted your literature
review, you will be in a position to present
your research findings. In presenting
these findings, you will need to refer back
to your original hypotheses and explain
the manner and degree to which your
results fit with what you anticipated you
would find. If you see strong support for
your argument or perhaps some
unexpected results that your original
hypotheses cannot account for, this
section is the place to convey such
important information to your reader. This
is also the place to suggest further lines of
research that will help refine, clarify
inconsistencies with, or provide additional
support for your hypotheses. Finally, in
the summary section of your paper,
reiterate the significance of your research
and your research findings and speculate
upon the path that future research efforts
should take.
Writing in political theory
Political theory differs from other
subfields in political science in that it
deals primarily with historical and
normative, rather than empirical, analysis.
In other words, political theorists are less
concerned with the scientific
measurement of political phenomena
than with understanding how important
political ideas develop over time. And
they are less concerned with evaluating
how things are than in debating how they
should be. A return to our democracy
example will make these distinctions
clearer and give you some clues about
how to write well in political theory.
Earlier, we talked about how to define
democracy empirically so that it can be
measured and tested in accordance with
scientific principles. Political theorists also
define democracy, but they use a different
standard of measurement. Their
definitions of democracy reflect their
interest in political ideals – for example,
liberty, equality, and citizenship – rather
than scientific measurement. So, when
writing about democracy from the
perspective of a political theorist, you may
be asked to make an argument about the
proper way to define citizenship in a
democratic society. Should citizens of a
democratic society be expected to engage
in decision-making and administration of
government, or should they be satisfied
with casting votes every couple of years?
In order to substantiate your position on
such questions, you will need to pay
special attention to two interrelated
components of your writing: (1) the
logical consistency of your ideas and (2)
the manner in which you use the
arguments of other theorists to support
your own. First, you need to make sure
that your conclusion and all points leading
up to it follow from your original premises
or assumptions. If, for example, you argue
that democracy is a system of government
through which citizens develop their full
capacities as human beings, then your
notion of citizenship will somehow need
to support this broad definition of
democracy. A narrow view of citizenship
based exclusively or primarily on voting
probably will not do. Whatever you argue,
however, you will need to be sure to
demonstrate in your analysis that you
have considered the arguments of other
theorists who have written about these
issues. In some cases, their arguments will
provide support for your own; in others,
they will raise criticisms and concerns that
you will need to address if you are going
to make a convincing case for your point
of view.
Drafting your paper
If you have used material from outside
sources in your paper, be sure to cite
them appropriately in your paper. In
political science, writers most often use
the APA or Turabian (a version of the
Chicago Manual of Style) style guides
when formatting references. Check with
your instructor if he or she has not
specified a citation style in the
assignment. For more information on
constructing citations, see the UNC
Libraries citation tutorial.

Conclusion
Although all assignments are different,
the preceding outlines provide a clear and
simple guide that should help you in
writing papers in any sub-field of political
science. If you find that you need more
assistance than this short guide provides,
refer to the list of additional resources
below or make an appointment to see a
tutor at the Writing Center.

Works consulted
We consulted these works while writing
the original version of this handout. This is
not a comprehensive list of resources on
the handout's topic, and we encourage
you to do your own research to find the
latest publications on this topic. Please do
not use this list as a model for the format
of your own reference list, as it may not
match the citation style you are using. For
guidance on formatting citations, please
see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial.
Becker, Howard S. 1986. Writing for Social
Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your
Thesis, Book, or Article. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press.
Cuba, Lee. 2002. A Short Guide to Writing
about Social Science, Fourth Edition. New
York: Longman.
Lasswell, Harold Dwight. 1936. Politics:
Who Gets What, When, How. New York,
London: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill
Book Company, inc.
Scott, Gregory M. and Stephen M.
Garrison. 1998. The Political Science
Student Writer's Manual, Second Edition.
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice
Hall, Inc.
Turabian, Kate L. 1996. A Manual for
Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and
Dissertations, Sixth Edition. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press.

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