O0CP 2005 - Research Design in Political Behaviour

This course is an introduction to the research design in political behavior and more broadly in political science. It covers all the stages to craft a research paper as identifying a research question, reviewing the literature, formulating hypothesis, conceiving an empirical design to validate hypothesis, interpreting and disseminating results. By research methods, we intend also to present both qualitative and quantitative methods. Last but not the least, the course will pay much attention of the causation concepts and investigates the current state of methods in political science, as natural, quasi-natural or list experiments. As the course is primarily conceived to address issues in political behavior, most examples will be drawn from research in vote, electoral decision and political institutions on political actors.

The course will combine lectures, seminars based on compulsory readings, and presentations/discussions of students’ research designs.

• 1) Literature review (8-10 pages),
• 2) Research design : a revised and extended version of the first assignment (15-20 pages)