Suchergebnisse

Cover -- Contents -- List of Figures, Tables and Boxes -- Preface -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction: Methods, Methodology and Making Sense of the Study of Politics -- Guiding themes -- Structure of the book -- 1 The Discipline of Politics -- The diverse traditions of political science -- Dominant paradigms -- Political studies or political science: some methodological considerations -- 2 Research Design and the Research Process -- The meaning of research design -- The research process -- The research labyrinth -- Types of research design -- Conclusion -- 3 Comparative Methods -- Comparative political science: substance and method -- Designing comparative research -- Why compare? The advantages -- The limits of comparison -- Cases: how many, and which? -- Conclusion -- 4 Surveys, Polls and Focus Groups -- Surveys, opinion polls and politics -- History of opinion polls and surveys -- Sampling procedures -- Types of sample design -- Administering surveys -- Interviewing -- Coding and analysis -- Focus groups -- Conclusion -- 5 Descriptive Statistics -- Levels of measurement, central tendency and spread -- Choosing descriptive statistics -- Presenting descriptive statistics -- All that glitters… -- Conclusion -- 6 Making Inferences -- What is inference? -- Inference - logic and problems -- Inferences in political science -- Conclusion -- 7 Documentary and Archival Analysis -- Use and abuse of secondary and tertiary documentary sources in political science -- The analysis of primary sources -- Research in the Public Record Office (the UK's National Archives) and the National Archives, Washington -- Conclusion: the value and limits of documentary and archival analysis -- 8 The Internet and Political Research -- Searching the internet -- Electronic resources for political research -- Online polling -- Elite interviewing online -- Conclusions.