Quiz Question #1

Which of the following questions is most like a scientific research

question?

A. What explains the success of social movements in Hungary?

B. How many people are opposed to affirmative action?

C. How does increased freedom of the press decrease corruption?

D. Should states give tax breaks to new businesses?

Quiz Question #2

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a hypothesis as

described in today’s reading by Johnson and Reynolds?

A. It must be testable

B. It must apply to many contexts

C. It must be an empirical statement

D. It must be stated as a generality

E. It must be plausible
Quiz Question #3
Identify the unit(s) of analysis in the following hypothesis. “When
looking at the United States, Northeastern cities are more likely to
have socially liberal mayors, while Southern cities are more likely to
have socially conservative mayors.”

A. The United States

B. Cities

C. Social policies

D. Mayors

E. All can be considered the units of analysis

Research Questions
in Political Science
From broad topics to scientific inquiry
Big Picture: Research Questions

From King, Keohane & Verba

(1994)

Research Questions Need Two

Things:

1. Importance

Research questions should

matter for the real world

2. Connection

Research questions should

connect to prior scholarship
What in Politics
Interests You?
Finding a Research Question
What interests you?

What is important?

Good, right or true?

Affects many people?

Transforming normative into

empirical questions

Normative opinion of others

Empirical assumptions

Connection to prior scholarship

American Politics
Does money affect politics? And if so, how? 

How do elections affect policy? 

In other words, does democracy work?

Who decides to participate in politics and why? 

Is congress racist? Xenophobic? 

How do elected officials control bureaucracies? Or do they?

How biased is the media? How can we know?

What are the effects of media bias? 
American Politics
Is political participation genetic? If who, which genes code for
voting? Which code for activism?

Do parties matter in the U.S. congress, or do decisions simply reflect

the “median” voter?

Do legislators make up their own minds, respond to constituents,

respond to colleagues, or respond to special-interest lobbying?

Are negative campaign ads effective?  Why or why not? 

Is voting rational or emotional? If both, which matters when?

Comparative Politics

Can proper constitutional design stop ethnic conflict?

What institutions and interests shape the number of political parties

in a system?

Which motivates politicians more: votes, office or policy?

Are governing coalitions based on political spoils or ideology?

What causes government corruption?

How does corruption affect politics and policy?

Top Ten Ways President Obama Celebrated
His Two-Year Anniversary In Office

10. Spelled "Two Years" on the south lawn of the White House with
cigarette butts
9. Romantic dinner with his favorite teleprompter
8. Loaded staffers on a party bus and drove to Pittsburgh
7. Surprised Joe Biden with an open heart necklace from Kay Jewelers
6. Watched Miss Arkansas and her dummies on Dave
5. Went on one of those staged "I'm a regular guy" burger runs
4. Climbed into a hot bubble bath and read Snooki's book
3. Pardoned Brett Favre
2. Same way President Bush celebrated two years in office: invaded Iraq
1. Began his campaign to replace Regis
Comparative Politics
Does democracy cause development?

Does development cause democracy?

Is Islam anti-democratic?

Does natural resource wealth dampen democracy (the resource

curse)?

What causes social capital (trust and community involvement)?

What are the effects of social capital?

Why and how do social movements form among people who were
previously disenfranchised?
International Relations
How does international anarchy shape state behavior?

How does power shape international relations?

Do few great powers cause peace and more great powers cause war?

How important is the offense-defense military balance? How does it

affect international relations?

How and why do ethnic identities and cultural differences contribute

to war?

Why do wealthy governments give foreign aid?

Does foreign aid solve global problems?
International Relations
Do democracies produce peace? Why? How?

How and why do interdependence and globalization affect

international relations and state behavior?

Why do states create international institutions?

How and why do institutions change?

Do international organizations alter state behavior?

Can states govern international organizations?

How and why do non-state actors influence IR?

Qualities of Good
Research Questions
King, Keohane & Verba
Importance to the real world
Connection to a scholarly literature
Monroe
Clarity
Testability
Theoretical significance
Practical relevance
Originality
Components of a Good
Research Question
Narrow phenomenon to study
– Dependent Variable

Narrow cause(s) of the

phenomenon
– Independent Variables

The phenomenon and cause(s)

must vary

Take on different values

Must not be constants

Heroic Computer Dies To Save
World From Master’s Thesis
From The Onion | May 17, 2006 | Issue
42•20

WALTHAM, MA—A courageous young

notebook computer committed a fatal, self-
inflicted execution error late Sunday night,
selflessly giving its own life so that
professors, academic advisors, classmates,
and even future generations of college
students would never have to read Jill
Samoskevich's 227-page master's thesis,
sources close to the Brandeis University
English graduate student reported Monday.
Comparative Political
Economy of Development
What causes economic, social
and political development?

Assumes development is
good

Too broad

But can be narrowed

conceptually – public goods

Missing independent
variables

How does the personal vote kill

public goods provision?
International Political
Economy of Development
Does the World Bank work?

What does “work” mean?

How would effectiveness be

measured?

What are the goals?

Independent and dependent

variables?

Does the World Bank respond to

demands from its member states?
Research Question Assignment
Objectives
Library research
Citation style – Get Turabian right
From topic to research question
Finding important scholarship
Soc. Sci. Citation Index – best start
JSTOR – full text of good journals
Others: WPSA, PAIS, Acad. Search Elite
Current news, gov’t docs, latest research
Powerful, reliable analog storage: books
Annotations
Dependent Variable
Independent Variable
Causal Mechanism / Logic
Method
In-class Assignment
Groups of three

Pick a topic

Discuss importance

Connect it to other ideas you know

Identify dependent variable; operationalize

Imagine independent variable; operational

Theorize causal mechanism

Write it down

Turn it in