Throughout its sessions, this course aims to offer students a comprehensive survey of the different methodological approaches to political science, incorporating a strong practical focus on how to apply these methods to perform empirical work. It is grounded in the time-honored practice of comparative politics, which has been at the core of the discipline since its very beginning. Following a logical sequence, the lectures will cover concept formation, measurement and validity, data collection and qualitative coding, different approaches to causality, case studies, comparative methods, path dependence, regression analysis, interpretation-based techniques, methodologies for political theory and finally experiments in political science. Such a broad range of topics guarantees that different practices within the discipline are fairly represented and gives students the opportunity to experience a broad range of techniques for creating research. The course is pitched in such a way that even students who have never before attended a methodology seminar should be able to follow without any issues. It is only composed of a lecture, without seminar, as it is meant not to excessively burden students’ schedule as they go about completing the remainder of their coursework.
- Učitel: Alberto Lioy