Readings

Required Reading

[DC] = Buy at Amazon Campbell, Donald, Julian Stanley, and N.L. Gage. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research. Houghton Mifflin, 1981. ISBN: 9780395307878.

[PS] = Buy at Amazon Shively, W. Phillips. The Craft of Political Research. Prentice Hall, 2010. ISBN: 9780205791200.

SES # TOPICS READINGS
Part I: The Scientific Method
1 Introduction and Course Overview [No Readings]
2 Models and Theories in Political Science

[PS] Chapters 1-2.

Riker, William. "The Two-Party System and Duverger's Law: An Essay on the History of Political Science." American Political Science Review 76 (1982).

Mayhew, David. "Electoral Realignments." Annual Review of Political Science 3 (2000).
Part II: Methods of Research
3 Introduction to Research Design and The Experimental Method

[DC] pp. 1-64.

Berinsky, Adam, and Donald Kinder. "Making Sense of Issues through Media Frames: Understanding the Kosovo Crisis." Journal of Politics 68, no. 3 (2006).
4 Experiments in Political Science

Cover, Albert, and Bruce Brumberg. "Baby Books and Ballots: The Impact of Congressional Mail on Constituent Opinion." American Political Science Review 76, no. 2 (June 1982).

Susan Hyde. "The Observer Effect in International Politics Evidence From A Natural Experiment." World Politics 60, no. 1 (2007).

Gerber, Alan, Donald Green, and Christopher Larimer. "Social Pressure and Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Largescale Field Experiment." American Political Science Review 102, no. 1 (2008).

Habyarimana, James, Macartan Humphreys, Daniel Posner, and Jeremy Weinstein. 2007. "Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision?" American Political Science Review 101, no. 4 (2007).
5 Case Studies, Comparing Cases, and Statistical Analysis

Buy at Amazon Gerring, John. "What is a Case Study Good For? Case Study versus Large-N Cross-Case Analysis." In Case Study Research: Principles and Practices. Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 37-63. ISBN: 9780521676564.

Lieberman, Evan. "Nested Analysis as a Mixed-Method Strategy for Comparative Analysis." American Political Science Review 99, no. 3 (2005).

Feaver, Peter D., Christopher Gelpi, and Jason Reifler. 2005-6. "Success Matters: Casualty Sensitivity and the War in Iraq." International Security 30, no. 3 (2005-6): 7-46.

Berinsky, Adam. "Assuming the Costs of War: Events, Elites, and American Public Support for Military Conflict." The Journal of Politics 69, no. 4 (2007): 975-997.

Optional

For reviewing the basics of statistical analysis

[PS] Chapters 7-9.
Part III: Gathering Data
6 Selecting and Sampling Cases

Geddes, Barbara. "How the Cases You Choose Affect the Answers You Get: Selection Bias in Comparative Politics." Political Analysis 2 (1991):131-50.

Achen, Christopher H., and Duncan Snidal. "Rational Deterrence Theory and Comparative Case Studies." World Politics 41, no. 2 (1989): 143-169.

Buy at Amazon Goldhagen, Daniel. "A Note on Methods." Appendix 1 in Hitler's Willing Executioners. Vintage, 1997. ISBN: 9780679772682.
7 Observation, Measurement, and Political Implications I

[PS] Chapters 4-5. 

Buy at Amazon Putnam, Robert. Chapter 3 in Making Democracy Work. Princeton University Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780691037387.

Robert Jackman, and Ross Miller. "A Renaissance of Political Culture?" American Journal of Political Science 40, no. 3 (August 1996): 632-659.
8 Observation, Measurement, and Political Implications II

Gladwell, Malcolm. "Examined Life: What Stanley Kaplan Taught us about the SAT." The New Yorker, December 17, 2001.

Brady, Henry, et al. "Law and Data: The Butterfly Ballot Episode." PS: Political Science and Politics 34, no. 1 (March 2001): 59-69.

Nisbett, Richard, and Timothy Wilson. "Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes," Psychological Review 84, no. 3 (1977): 231-259.

Fenno, Richard F., Jr. "The House Appropriations Committee as a Political System: The Problem of Integration." American Political Science Review 56, no. 2 (1962): 310-324.
Part IV: Guest Lectures
9 Jens Hainmueller  [No Readings]
10 Vipin Narang  [No Readings]
Part V: Student Presentations
11 Group 1 [No Readings]
12 Group 2 [No Readings]
13 Group 3 [No Readings]
Part VI: Conclusions
14 Ethics and Political Research

Milgram, Stanley. "Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority." Human Relations 18 (1965):57-76.

Zimbardo, Phillip. "A Pirandellian Prison," New York Times Magazine, April 8, 1973. (See also Zimbardo's description of this Prison experiment at http://www.prisonexp.org )
15 Final Thoughts [No Readings]