Seminar in Scope and Methods of Political Science

Office: Pitzer 214 (Hours: MW 1:30 - 3:30, Tue 10-noon, and by appointment)

Telephone: 909/607-4224

E-mail: jpitney@mckenna.edu

WWW: http://govt.mckenna.edu/jpitney

General

This course aims to help upper-level students conduct more rigorous research in political science. Specifically, it supplies them with intellectual tools necessary to write first-rate theses and papers, both here in Claremont and in post-graduate schooling. Specifically, we look at:

• The literature and traditions of political science;
• Theory and hypothesis construction;
• The use and abuse of statistics and survey research;
• Comparative political analysis;
• Techniques for libraries and the Internet;
• Rules for proper writing, citation, and oral presentations.

Classes

Class sessions will include lecture and discussion. Finish each week's readings before class because our discussions will involve those readings.

Grades

The following will make up your course grade:

10% One-pagers. In this series of series of brief assignments, I shall give you each a separate question or task, and you will write a one-page (double-spaced) report on what you find.

15% Short Essay. In this assignment (no more than three pages), you will use primary sources to test a widely-accepted political or historical proposition.

20% Analytical book review. You will choose a scholarly work of political science. In an essay of no more than five pages, you will critically assess the book's evidence and logic.

40% Research project. You will write a research paper (20-page maximum) on a topic of your choice, subject to my approval. On March 3, you will turn in a brief prospectus. Toward the end of the semester, you will make an oral presentation.

15% Class participation. In addition to the formal presentation on your research project, you will discuss your work in class. Your grade will depend on peer evaluation and my judgment. If you often miss class or fail to prepare, your grade will suffer.

Plagiarism will result in an F for the course and referral to the Academic Standards Committee.

Required Books

Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff, The Modern Researcher, 5th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992).

Marcus E. Ethridge, The Political Research Experience, 2d ed. (Guilford, Connecticut: Dushkin, 1994).

Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).

Schedule

The following schedule is subject to change. If I do make any changes, however, I shall tell you in advance.

Jan 20: Political Science, Political Research

"Political scientists `do' political science, but they seldom examine the status of that activity as part of the phenomena they study." -- James W. Ceaser

Jan 27: Finding the Facts

"For nothing is lost, nothing is ever lost. There is always the clue, the canceled check, the smear of lipstick ... the twitch in the old wound, the baby shoes dipped in bronze, the taint in the blood stream. And all times are one time, and all those dead in the past never lived before our definition gives them life, and out of the shadow their eyes implore us. That is what all of us historical researchers believe. And we love truth." -- Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men

• Barzun and Graff, ch. 1-4.
• "Using the Internet for Research" at www.purefiction.com/pages/res1.htm

ONE-PAGER ASSIGNED JAN 27, DUE FEB 3. READ STRUNK AND WHITE FIRST

Feb 3: Logic, Criticism and Verification

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift." -- Lincoln

"I cannot tell a lie." -- Washington

"Play it again, Sam." -- Bogart

• Barzun and Graff, ch. 5-8.
• Clifford M. Kuhn, "`There's a Footnote to History!' Memory and the History of Martin Luther King's October 1960 Arrest and Its Aftermath," Journal of American History 84 (Summer 1997): 583-595.

SHORT ESSAY ASSIGNED FEB 3, DUE FEB 10

Feb 10: Political Science Data Analysis I

"When statistics are not based on strictly accurate calculations, they mislead instead of guide. The mind easily lets itself be taken in by the false appearance of exactitude which statistics retain even in their mistakes, and confidently adopt errors clothed in the forms of mathematical truth." -- Alexis deTocqueville, Democracy in America

Ethridge, ch. 1-3.

ONE-PAGER ASSIGNED FEB 10, DUE FEB 17

Feb 17: Political Science Data Analysis II

"Round numbers are always false." -- Samuel Johnson

Ethridge, ch. 4-7

ONE-PAGER ASSIGNED FEB 17, DUE FEB 24

Feb 24: Political Science Data Analysis III

"Many a statistic is false on its face." -- Darrell Huff

Ethridge, ch. 8-11.

March 3: NO CLASS. BRING RESEARCH PROSPECTUS TO MY OFFICE AND WRITE ANALYTICAL BOOK REVIEW, DUE MAR 10

March 10: Interviews and Observation

"Political scientists ought to learn about politicians by talking to them, watching them and following them around." -- Richard Fenno

• Richard F. Fenno, "The Political Scientist as Participant Observer," in Watching Politicians: Essays on Participant Observation (Berkeley: IGS Press, 1990).
• Handout on interviewing.

March 24: Comparing Across Time and Space

"Nothing is good or bad but by comparison." -- Thomas Fuller

• Alexis deTocqueville, "Situation of the Black Race in the United States," at ttp://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/1_ch18.htm
• George Wilson Pierson, "Tocqueville's Work in Retrospect: Its Defects," in Tocqueville in America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996 [1938]).
• Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May, "What to Do and How: A Summary," in Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decisionmakers (New York: Free Press, 1986).
• Handout on comparative political analysis.

ONE-PAGER ASSIGNED MAR 24, DUE MAR 31.

March 31: What's It All About?

"The science of politics, however, like most other sciences has received great improvement." -- Alexander Hamilton

• Ethridge, ch. 14.
• James W. Ceaser, "Modern Political Science," in Liberal Democracy and Political Science (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990).
• Theodore J. Lowi, "The State in Political Science: How We Become What We Study," American Political Science Review 86 (March 1992): 1-7.

April 7: Writing and Rewriting

"If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy." -- George Orwell

• Barzun and Graff, ch. 9-12, 14.
• George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," at www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html

April 14: Citing and Presenting

• "If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use the pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time; a tremendous whack." -- Winston Churchill
• Barzun and Graff, ch. 13, 15
• Skim and sample Turabian, and citation guides on my homepage.
• Handout on oral presentation

April 21: Oral Presentations of Research Papers I

"They can do it all because they think they can." -- Virgil

April 28: Oral Presentations of Research Papers II

"It is not a fragrant world, but it is the world you live in, and certain writers with tough minds and a cool spirit of detachment can make very interesting and even amusing patterns out of it." -- Raymond Chandler

May 5: Reconsiderations

"What makes a good writer of history is a guy who is suspicious." -- Jim Bishop

RESEARCH PAPERS DUE MAY 5.