Empirical Political Analysis

Political Science 214

Fall 1996

Prospectus

In this course, you will be introduced to the principal analytical tools in the discipline of political science, tools that are used to analyze political phenomena. We will be examining the concepts that constitute the nuts and bolts of any social scientific enterprise: power, rationality, self-interest, structure, and theory. In this context, we will examine broader questions such as the difference between interpretive, critical, and behaviouralistic types of social science and the status of politics as a 'scientific enterprise.'

Requirements

I expect faithful attendance and class participation as a matter of course. As this is a large class, some of you may not always get the opportunity you need to ask questions. I suggest strongly that you make an appointment to see me if you find yourself lost. I also urge you to establish study groups for this class; it will make a difference.

There will be a mid-term exam and a 5-6 page discussion paper on an assigned aspect of the social sciences (although you will have a choice among assigned topics).

Books

The following books are available in the bookstore:

Elster, Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences
Nielsen, Feminist Research Methods
Douglas, How Institutions Think
Lukes, Power
Root, Philosophy of Social Science
Buroway, ed. Ethnography Unbound


Readings

Neutrality

1. Root, Philosophy of Social Science, pp. 1-53

2. Root, Philosophy of Social Science, pp. 78-123, 173-199

Rational Choice, Political Psychology

1. Elster, Political Psychology, pp. 1-34, 136-191

2. Elster, Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences, pp. 3-70

3. Elster, Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences, pp. 71-81, 91-134, 147-171

Structure, Function

1. Douglas, How Institutions Think, p. 9-43, 69-80

2. Douglas, How Institutions Think, p. 91-109

Lukes, "Suicide" from Durkheim, pp. 191-225

Nielsen,, p. 193-207

Power, Structure, Agency

1 Wrong, Power, Chapters 1, 6, 7

2. Barrow, Critical Theories of the State, pp. 13-50.

3. Lukes, Power: A Radical View, pp. 9-46

Nielsen, Feminist Research Methods, pp. 224-237.

4. Barrow, Critical Theories of the State, pp. 51-76.

Lukes, Power, pp. 46-57

5. Lukes, "Power and Structure" from Essays in Social Theory, pp. 3-29.

Midterm Exam

Power, Structure, Agency (Continued)

6. Anthony Giddens, "Action, Structure, Power" (On Reserve)

7. Foucault, "How is Power Exercised?" from Dreyfus and Rabinow, Michel Foucault, pp. 217-226.

Simmel, "Domination and Freedom" from Lukes, ed. Power, pp. 203-210.

8. John Law," On the methods of long-distance control: vessels, navigation and the Portugese route to India," from Law, ed., Power, Action and Belief (1986), pp. 234-262

Latour, "Give me a laboratory and I will raise the world" from Knorr-Cetina and Mulkay, eds, Science Observed pp. 140-170.

9. John Law, "On power and its tactics: A view from the sociology of science" The Sociological Review 34:1 (February 1986), pp. 1-38.

John Law, "Power, Discretion and Strategy" from Law, ed. A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination (1991), pp. 165-191.

Collecting Data

1. Root, Philosophy of Social Science , 124-172

2. Burawoy et al, Ethnography Unbound, pp. 271-300

3. Burawoy et al, Ethnography Unbound, pp. 108-130.

4. Burawoy et al, Ethnography Unbound, pp. 135-179

Positivism, Science and Explanation

1. Brian Fay, Social Theory and Political Practice, pp. 18-69.

2. Susser, Approaches to Politics, p. 167-179

Nielsen, Feminist Research Methods, p. 1-34

3. Root, Philosophy of Social Science, pp. 229-253.

Nielsen, Feminist Research Methods, pp.174-188,.

4. Root, Philosophy of Social Science, pp. 205-228