This course introduces students to advanced methodological debates and research design in political science. Students will learn research skills to interpret and explain political processes, learning from scholarly literature on case selection and research methodologies and from research papers where various methodologies are applied. They will apply these skills to design their own research projects and present their research design papers at the end of the course.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- develop research questions and puzzles;
- define and measure political science concepts;
- critically analyse political arguments;
- evaluate advantages and disadvantages of different methodological approaches and identify threats to valid causal inference; and
- design research strategies for case and method selection to answer research questions.
Indicative Assessment
- Concepts and Measurement Assignment 1,000 words (15) [LO 2]
- Causal Analysis Assignment 1,500 words (20) [LO 3,4]
- Research Design Presentation, 10 minutes (15) [LO 1,2,3,4,5]
- Research Design Paper 5,500 words (40) [LO 1,2,3,4,5]
- Class Participation (10) [LO 1,2,3,4,5]
In response to COVID-19: Please note that Semester 2 Class Summary information (available under the classes tab) is as up to date as possible. Changes to Class Summaries not captured by this publication will be available to enrolled students via Wattle.
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Workload
130 hours of total student learning time made up from:
a) 24 hours of seminars over 12 weeks
b) 106 hours of independent student research, reading and writing
Inherent Requirements
Not applicable
Prescribed Texts
N/A
Preliminary Reading
Pearl, Judea and Dana Mackenzie. 2018. The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect. New York: Basic Book
King, Gary, Robert Keohane, and Sydney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry. Princeton University Press
Freedman, David. 2009. Statistical Models and Causal Inference: A Dialog with Social Sciences. Cambridge University Press.
Angrist, David Joshua and Jorn-Steffen Pischke. 2014. Mastering Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect. Princeton University Press.
Achen, Christopher H. 2002. “Toward a New Political Methodology: Microfoundations and ART.” Annual Review of Political Science 5: 423–450.
Brady, Henry, and David Collier. Eds. 2010. Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards. 2nd ed. Lanham, Md: Rowman and Littlefield.
Elkins, Zachary. 2000. “Gradations of Democracy? Empirical Tests of Alternative Conceptualizations.” American Journal of Political Science 44(2): 293–300.
Box-Steffensmeier, Janet, Henry E. Brady, and David Collier, eds., Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Goertz, Gary. 2006. Social Science Concepts: A User’s Guide. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Holland, Paul W. 1986. “Statistics and Causal Inference,” Journal of the American Statistical Association 81(396): 945–960.
Lieberman, Evan (2005). “Nested Analysis as a Mixed-Method Strategy for Comparative Research,” American Political Science Review 99(3): 435–452.
Geddes, Barbara. 2003. Paradigm and Sand Castles: Theory Building and Research Design in Comparative Politics. University of Michigan Press
Fearon, James. 1991. “Counterfactuals and Hypothesis Testing in Political Science,” World Politics 43 (2): 169-195
Dunning, Thad. 2012. “Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences: A Design-Based Approach. New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 208–232.
Mahoney, James, and Gary Goertz. 2006. “A Tale of Two Cultures: Contrasting Quantitative and Qualitative Research,” Political Analysis 14(3): 227–249.
Assumed Knowledge
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
If you are a domestic graduate coursework or international student you will be required to pay tuition fees. Tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 1
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are an undergraduate student and have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). You can find your student contribution amount for each course at Fees. Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2020 | $4050 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2020 | $5760 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
Second Semester
| Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9659 | 27 Jul 2020 | 03 Aug 2020 | 31 Aug 2020 | 30 Oct 2020 | In Person | View |