Research Methods in Politics

383 Pages·2008·4.481 MB·English

by  Peter Burnham, Karin Gilland Lutz, Wyn Grant, Zig Layton-Henry

Series Editors: B. Guy Peters, Jon Pierre and Gerry Stoker
Political science today is a dynamic discipline. Its substance, theory and
methods have all changed radically in recent decades. It is much expanded in
range and scope and in the variety of new perspectives – and new variants of
old ones – that it encompasses. The sheer volume of work being published,
and the increasing degree of its specialization, however, make it difficult for
political scientists to maintain a clear grasp of the state of debate beyond
their own particular subdisciplines.
The Political Analysis series is intended to provide a channel for different parts
of the discipline to talk to one another and to new generations of students.
Our aim is to publish books that provide introductions to, and exemplars of,
the best work in various areas of the discipline. Written in an accessible style,
they provide a ‘launching-pad’ for students and others seeking a clear grasp
of the key methodological, theoretical and empirical issues, and the main
areas of debate, in the complex and fragmented world of political science.
A particular priority is to facilitate intellectual exchange between academic
communities in different parts of the world. Although frequently addressing
the same intellectual issues, research agendas and literatures in North
America, Europe and elsewhere have often tended to develop in relative
isolation from one another. This series is designed to provide a framework for
dialogue and debate which, rather than advocacy of one regional approach or
another, is the key to progress.
The series reflects our view that the core values of political science should be
coherent and logically constructed theory, matched by carefully constructed
and exhaustive empirical investigation. The key challenge is to ensure quality
and integrity in what is produced rather than to constrain diversity in
methods and approaches. The series is intended as a showcase for the best
of political science in all its variety, and to demonstrate how nurturing that
variety can further improve the discipline.
Political Analysis Series
Series Standing Order
ISBN 0–333–78694–7 hardback
ISBN 0–333–94506–9 paperback
(outside North America only)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a
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Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
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Series Editors: B. Guy Peters, Jon Pierre and Gerry Stoker
Published
Peter Burnham, Karin Gilland Lutz, Wyn Grant and Zig Layton-Henry
Research Methods in Politics (2nd edition)
Colin Hay
Political Analysis
Colin Hay, Michael Lister and David Marsh (eds)
The State: Theories and Issues
Andrew Hindmoor
Rational Choice
David Marsh and Gerry Stoker (eds)
Theory and Methods in Political Science (2nd edition)
Jon Pierre and B. Guy Peters
Governance, Politics and the State
Forthcoming
Keith Dowding
The Philosophy and Methods of Political Science
Lina Eriksson
What Can Rational Choice Do?
Colin Hay
Globalization and the State
Johanna Kantola and Judith Squires
Gender and Political Analysis
David Marsh
Political Behaviour
Karen Mossberger and Mark Cassell
The Policy Process: Ideas, Interests and Institutions
Martin Smith
Power, Politics and the State
Gerry Stoker, Jon Pierre and B. Guy Peters (eds)
The Relevance of Political Science
Cees van der Eijk and Mark Franklin
Voters and Elections
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Research Methods
in Politics
2nd edition
Peter Burnham
Karin Gilland Lutz
Wyn Grant
and
Zig Layton-Henry
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© Peter Burnham, Karin Gilland Lutz, Wyn Grant and Zig Layton-Henry 2004,
2008
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication
may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90
Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First edition 2004
Second edition 2008
Published by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
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ISBN-13: 978–0–230–01984–3 hardback
ISBN-10: 0–230–01984–6 hardback
ISBN-13: 978–0–230–01985–0 paperback
ISBN-10: 0–230–01985–4 paperback
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Contents
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes viii
Preface xi
List of Abbreviations xii
Introduction: Methods, Methodology and Making
Sense of the Study of Politics 1
Guiding themes 2
Structure of the book 5
1 The Discipline of Politics 9
The diverse traditions of political science 9
Dominant paradigms 19
Political studies or political science: some methodological
considerations 30
2 Research Design and the Research Process 38
The meaning of research design 39
The research process 45
The research labyrinth 53
Types of research design 55
Conclusion 68
3 Comparative Methods 69
Comparative political science: substance and method 70
Designing comparative research 73
Why compare? The advantages 80
The limits of comparison 83
Cases: how many, and which? 87
Conclusion 94
4 Surveys, Polls and Focus Groups 96
Surveys, opinion polls and politics 97
History of opinion polls and surveys 99
Sampling procedures 102
Types of sample design 103
Administering surveys 108
Interviewing 123
v
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vi Contents
Coding and analysis 125
Focus groups 128
Conclusion 136
5 Descriptive Statistics 138
Levels of measurement, central tendency and spread 140
Choosing descriptive statistics 151
Presenting descriptive statistics 153
All that glitters ... 166
Conclusion 169
6 Making Inferences 171
What is inference? 172
Inference – logic and problems 177
Inferences in political science 179
Conclusion 186
7 Documentary and Archival Analysis 187
Use and abuse of secondary and tertiary documentary
sources in political science 190
The analysis of primary sources 195
Research in the Public Record Office (the UK’s National
Archives) and the National Archives, Washington 200
Conclusion: the value and limits of documentary and
archival analysis 208
8 The Internet and Political Research 213
Searching the internet 216
Electronic resources for political research 218
Online polling 224
Elite interviewing online 228
Conclusions 230
9 Elite Interviewing 231
Decide who you want to see 233
Get access and arrange the interview 235
Conduct the interview 238
Analyse the results 245
Conclusions 246
10 Discourse Analysis and Other Methods 248
Discourse analysis 249
Content analysis 259
The advantages and limitations of content analysis 264
Participant observation 264
Conclusion 281
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Contents vii
11 Ethics and Political Research 282
The nature of ethical problems 283
Two broad approaches to ethical problems 284
Five basic ethical principles 286
The relationship with sponsors 288
Gatekeepers 292
Citizens 295
The problem of fraud in research 296
Professional codes of conduct 298
Conclusions 303
12 Research and the Policy Process 305
The demand side: what policymakers want from
researchers 305
The supply side: what researchers can provide 310
The mediating effect of national structures and cultures 313
Bridging the gap 318
How could the contribution of research to policymaking
be improved? 322
Conclusion 324
13 Conclusion: Challenging the Mainstream and the
Qualitative/Quantitative Divide 325
Feminist methods? 325
Anti-racist and Marxist challenges 330
Theory, methods and the qualitative/quantitative divide 331
Suggestions for Further Reading 335
References 340
Index 361
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List of Figures, Tables and Boxes
Figures
2.1 A linear model of the research process 46
2.2 The main stages of the research process as a linear
progression 53
5.1 Choosing descriptive statistics 152
10.1 Types of discourse analysis 253
Tables
4.1 Survey of working-class households in York, 1936 101
4.2 Why didn’t you vote in 1997? 126
5.1 Categorical data: the French presidential election, 2007 141
5.2 Ordinal data: the French presidential election, 2007 143
5.3 Ratio data: the French presidential election, 2007 143
8.1 The dominance of Google: visits to a website from
leading search engines January to October 2007
(www.footballeconomy.com) 217
12.1 Leading think tanks in Brussels 320
Boxes
1.1 Eight claims made for behaviouralism 20
1.2 The key features of historical institutionalism 23
2.1 Reliability and validity 39
2.2 Ecological and individualistic fallacies 41
2.3 Example of secondary analysis 44
2.4 The value of pilot studies 49
2.5 The discovery of the structure of DNA 53
2.6 The Portuguese in North America: a quasi-experimental
design 58
3.1 Research design: most similar electoral systems and
gender balances in Parliament (I) 76
3.2 The difficulties of case selection: Almond and Verba’s
The Civic Culture 78
viii
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List of Figures, Tables and Boxes ix
3.3 Research design: most different electoral systems and
gender balances in Parliament (II) 79
3.4 Does the measurement travel? Comparative Manifesto
Research 86
3.5 Selecting cases on the dependent variable: the European
Union as an international actor 91
3.6 Research design checklist 94
4.1 Survey of public and elite opinions on ethical standards
among Australian politicians 98
4.2 Multi-stage sampling 105
4.3 Sample design of the 19th British Social Attitudes Survey 109
4.4 Booster samples 111
4.5 Questionnaire design 112
4.6 Improving response rates 122
4.7 Focus groups 129
4.8 The nature of citizenship in the USA and Great Britain 135
5.1 Addressing research questions with descriptive statistics 139
5.2 Measures of central tendency 144
5.3 Gini coefficient 145
5.4 Modality: a unimodal, a bimodal and a multi-modal
distribution 147
5.5 Skewness 147
5.6 Two unimodal distributions 148
5.7 Calculating the standard deviation: electoral colleges
in the US presidential election, 2008 148
5.8 Quartiles: women MPs in Europe 151
5.9 The House of Representatives: outlier effects 153
5.10 Pie charts: European Parliament election, 2004 154
5.11 Histograms 155
5.12 Cross-tabulations: the human development index, 2006 157
5.13 Cross-tabulations with three variables: the human
development index, 2006 161
5.14 Box plots: fatalities in UN peacekeeping operations 163
5.15 Misleading with descriptive statistics 165
5.16 Effective number of parties 167
5.17 Index of party fragmentation 168
6.1 Normal distributions 180
6.2 The Central Limit Theorem I: British Army bases in
Northern Ireland 181
6.3 The Central Limit Theorem II: Political activists 183
7.1 Primary, secondary and tertiary sources in relation to
the Bretton Woods negotiations, 1942–4 189
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