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| List of Figures, Tables and Boxes | |
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| Preface | |
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| List of Abbreviations | |
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| Introduction: Methods, Methodology and Making Sense of the Study of Politics | |
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| Guiding themes | |
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| Structure of the book | |
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| The Discipline of Politics | |
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| The diverse traditions of political science | |
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| Dominant paradigms | |
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| Political studies or political science: some methodological considerations | |
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| Research Design and the Research Process | |
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| The meaning of research design | |
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| The research process | |
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| The research labyrinth | |
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| Types of research design | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Comparative Methods | |
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| Comparative political science: substance and method | |
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| Designing comparative research | |
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| Why compare? The advantages | |
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| The limits of comparison | |
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| Cases: how many, and which? | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Surveys, Polls and Focus Groups | |
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| Surveys, opinion polls and politics | |
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| History of opinion polls and surveys | |
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| Sampling procedures | |
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| Types of sample design | |
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| Administering surveys | |
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| Interviewing | |
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| Coding and analysis | |
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| Focus groups | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Descriptive Statistics | |
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| Levels of measurement, central tendency and spread | |
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| Choosing descriptive statistics | |
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| Presenting descriptive statistics | |
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| All that glitters ... | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Making Inferences | |
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| What is inference? | |
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| Inference - logic and problems | |
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| Inferences in political science | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Documentary and Archival Analysis | |
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| Use and abuse of secondary and tertiary documentary sources in political science | |
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| The analysis of primary sources | |
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| Research in the Public Record Office (the UK's National Archives) and the National Archives, Washington | |
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| Conclusion: the value and limits of documentary and archival analysis | |
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| The Internet and Political Research | |
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| Searching the internet | |
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| Electronic resources for political research | |
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| Online polling | |
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| Elite interviewing online | |
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| Conclusions | |
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| Elite Interviewing | |
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| Decide who you want to see | |
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| Get access and arrange the interview | |
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| Conduct the interview | |
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| Analyse the results | |
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| Conclusions | |
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| Discourse Analysis and Other Methods | |
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| Discourse analysis | |
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| Content analysis | |
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| The advantages and limitations of content analysis | |
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| Participant observation | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Ethics and Political Research | |
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| The nature of ethical problems | |
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| Two broad approaches to ethical problems | |
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| Five basic ethical principles | |
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| The relationship with sponsors | |
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| Gatekeepers | |
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| Citizens | |
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| The problem of fraud in research | |
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| Professional codes of conduct | |
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| Conclusions | |
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| Research and the Policy Process | |
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| The demand side: what policymakers want from researchers | |
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| The supply side: what researchers can provide | |
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| The mediating effect of national structures and cultures | |
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| Bridging the gap | |
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| How could the contribution of research to policymaking be improved? | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Conclusion: Challenging the Mainstream and the Qualitative/Quantitative Divide | |
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| Feminist methods? | |
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| Anti-racist and Marxist challenges | |
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| Theory, methods and the qualitative/quantitative divide | |
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| Suggestions for Further Reading | |
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| References | |
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| Index | |