The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology

by Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier, Henry E. Brady, David Collier

Overview

Political methodology has changed dramatically over the past thirty years, and many new methods and techniques have been developed. Both the Political Methodology Society and the Qualitative/Multi-Methods Section of the American Political Science Association have engaged in ongoing research and training programs that have advanced quantitative and qualitative methodology. The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology presents and synthesizes these developments.

The Handbook provides comprehensive overviews of diverse methodological approaches, with an emphasis on three major themes. First, specific methodological tools should be at the service of improved conceptualization, comprehension of meaning, measurement, and data collection. They should increase analysts' leverage in reasoning about causal relationships and evaluating them empirically by contributing to powerful research designs. Second, the authors explore the many different ways of addressing these tasks: through case-studies and large-n designs, with both quantitative and qualitative data, and via techniques ranging from statistical modelling to process tracing. Finally, techniques can cut across traditional methodological boundaries and can be useful for many different kinds of researchers. Many of the authors thus explore how their methods can inform, and be used by, scholars engaged in diverse branches of methodology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199585564
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/29/2010
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	896
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.60(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier is the Vernal Riffe Professor of Political Science, Director of the Program in Statistics and Methodology, and courtesy faculty of Sociology at the Ohio State University. She holds a B.A. in mathematics and political science from Coe College and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Texas at Austin.

Henry E. Brady is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in Economics and Political Science from MIT, and his areas of interest include Quantitative Methodology, American and Canadian Politics, and Political Behavior. He teaches undergraduate courses on political participation and party systems and graduate courses on advanced quantitative methodology.

David Collier is Professor of Political Science at University of California, Berkeley and former President of the American Political Science Association. His fields are comparative politics, Latin American politics, and methodology. His latest book is Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards, of which he is co-editor and co-author with Henry E. Brady.

Table of Contents

Part I: Introduction
1. Political Science Methodology, Janet Box-Steffensmeier, Henry Brady, David Collier
2. Normative Methodology, Russell Hardin
Part II: Approaches to Social Science Methodology
3. Meta-methodology: Clearing the Underbrush, Mark Bevir
4. Agent-based Modeling, Scott de Marchi and Scott E. Page
Part III: Concepts and Measurement
5. Concepts, Theories, and Numbers: A Checklist for Constructing, Evaluating, and Using Concepts or Quantitative Measures, Gary Goertz
6. Measurement, Simon Jackman
7. Typologies: Forming Concepts and Creating Catagorical Variables, David Collier, Jody LaPorte, and Jason Seawright
8. Measurement versus Calibration: A Set-theoretic Approach, Charles C. Ragin
9. The Evolving Influence of Psychometrics in Political Science, Keith T. Poole
Part IV: Causality and Explanation in Social Research
10. Causation and Explanation in Social Science, Henry E. Brady
11. The Neyman-Rubin Model of Causal Inference and Estimation via Matching Methods, Jasjeet S.Sekhon
12. On Types of Scientific Enquiry: The Role of Qualitative Reasoning, David A. Freedman
13. Studying Mechanisms to Strengthen Causal Inferences in Quantitative Research, Peter Hedstrom
Part V: Experiments, Quasi-experiments and Natural Experiments
14. Experimentation in Political Science, Rebecca B. Morton and Kenneth C. Williams
15. Field Experiments and Natural Experiments, Alan S. Gerber and Donald P. Green
Part VI: Quantitative Tools for Descriptive and Causal Inference: General Methods
16. Survey Methodology, Richard Johnston
17. Endogeneity and Structural Equation Estimation in Political Science, John E. Jackson
18. Structural Equation Models, Kenneth A. Bollen, Sophia Rabe-Hesketh, and Anders Skrondal
19. Time-series Analysis, Jon C. Pevehouse and Jason D. Brozek
20. Time-series Cross-section Methods, Nathaniel Beck
21. Bayesian Analysis, Andrew D. Martin
Part VII: Quantitative Tools for Descriptive and Causal Inference: Special Topics
22. Discrete Choice Methods, Garrett Glasgow and R. Michael Alvarez
23. Survival Analysis, Jonathan Golub
24. Cross-level/Ecological Inference, Wendy K. Tam Cho and Charles F. Manski
25. Empirical Models of Spatial Interdependence, Robert J. Franzese Jr, and Jude C. Hays
26. Multilevel Models, Bradford S. Jones
Part VIII: Qualitative Tools for Descriptive and Causal Inference
27. Counterfactuals and Case Studies, Jack S. Levy
28. Case Selection for Case-study Analysis: Qualitative and Quantitative Techniques, John Gerring
29. Interviewing and Qualitative Field Methods: Pragmatism and Practicalities, Brian C. Rathbun
30. Process Tracing: A Bayesian Perspective, Andrew Bennett
31. Case-oriented Configurational Research: Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), Fuzzy Sets, and Related Techniques, Benoit Rihoux
32. Comparative-historical Analysis in Contemporary Political Science, James Mahoney and P. Larkin Terrie
33. Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods, James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin
Part IX: Organizations, Institutions, and Movements in the Field of Methodology
34. Qualitative and Multimethod Research: Organizations, Publication, and Reflections on Integration, David Collier and Colin Elman
35. Quantitative Methodology, Charles H. Franklin
36. Forty Years of Publishing in Quantitative Methodology, Michael S. Lewis-Beck
37. The EITM Approach: Origins and Interpretations, John H. Aldrich, James E. Alt, and Arthur Lupia
Index

Editorial Reviews

"This Handbook contains an extraordinary collection of magisterial articles by many of the best methodological minds in political science...The range is broad and substantive, with quantitative, qualitative, formal-theoretic, historical, and mixed methods discussed in relation to all the empirical subfields of the discipline. Every sect will find something to its taste, and those who celebrate the methodological diversity of the profession will have a feast. The articles are written to be accessible, and graduate students will find no better place to begin developing their own methodological judgment. This book is a splendid achievement."—Christopher H. Achen, Roger Williams Straus Professor of Social Sciences, Princeton University

"This extraordinary series offers 'state of the art' assessments that instruct, engage, and provoke. No one who is immersed in the discipline's controversies and possibilities should miss the intellectual stimulation and critical appraisal these works so powerfully provide."—Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University

"This blockbuster set is a must-have for scholars and students alike. Each volume is crafted by a distinguished set of editors who have assembled critical, comprehensive, essays. These volumes will help to shape the discipline for many years to come."—Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University

From the Publisher