OVERVIEW

Most political science students are interested in the substance of politics and not in its methodology. We begin with a discussion of the goals of this book and why a scientific approach to the study of politics is more interesting and desirable than a “just-the-facts” approach. In this chapter we provide an overview of what it means to study politics scientifically. We begin with an introduction to how we move from causal theories to scientific knowledge, and a key part of this process is thinking about the world in terms of models in which the concepts of interest become variables that are causally linked together by theories. We then introduce the goals and standards of political science research that will be our rules of the road to keep in mind throughout this book. The chapter concludes with a brief overview of the structure of this book.

POLITICAL SCIENCE?

“Which party do you support?” “When are you going to run for office?” These are questions that students often hear after announcing that they are taking courses in political science. Although many political scientists are avid partisans, and some political scientists have even run for elected offices or have advised elected officials, for the most part this is not the focus of modern political science. Instead, political science is about the scientific study of political phenomena.