Overview

There are many different ways to do political science research. This book takes a core question that motivates research in political science what is democracy? and presents, in a single volume, original research demonstrating a variety of approaches to studying it. The approaches and related methods covered by the chapters in this book include normative political theory, positivist quantitative analysis, behaviouralism, critical theory, post-structuralism, historical institutionalism, process tracing, case studies, and literature reviews. Readers are confronted with the different assumptions that researchers make when entering the research process and can compare and contrast the many different ways that a single question can be studied . This book will be enlightening for students of democracy as well as those interested in research design and methodological approaches.

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9781487588588

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Reviews

"""In What Is Democracy and How Do We Study It? Anderson and Stephenson have brought together an array of scholars to provide readers with a comprehensive overview of the varied approaches used to study politics. The focus on the study of democracy as the touchstone for the book is excellent, offering readers not only ample exposure to a variety of methodologies, but also an important set of questions in the process. I have no doubt this book will be a great resource for our discipline, both within and outside of the classroom.""--Jason Roy, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University ""Anchoring discussions of research methodology on one theoretical question, What Is Democracy and How Do We Study It? brings something new to the field which many will welcome to help teach research methodology.""--Joanne Boucher, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Winnipeg ""A novel contribution, What Is Democracy and How Do We Study It? is an improvement on mainstream methods books and will be a useful accompaniment for methods-based courses.""--Sanjay Jeram, Undergraduate Program Chair and Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser University"

A novel contribution, What Is Democracy and How Do We Study It? is an improvement on mainstream methods books and will be a useful accompaniment for methods-based courses. - Sanjay Jeram, Undergraduate Program Chair and Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser University Anchoring discussions of research methodology on one theoretical question, What Is Democracy and How Do We Study It? brings something new to the field which many will welcome to help teach research methodology. - Joanne Boucher, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Winnipeg In What Is Democracy and How Do We Study It? Anderson and Stephenson have brought together an array of scholars to provide readers with a comprehensive overview of the varied approaches used to study politics. The focus on the study of democracy as the touchstone for the book is excellent, offering readers not only ample exposure to a variety of methodologies, but also an important set of questions in the process. I have no doubt this book will be a great resource for our discipline, both within and outside of the classroom. - Jason Roy, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University

Author Information

Cameron D. Anderson is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Western University. Laura B. Stephenson is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario.

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