Quantitative Research Methods for Politics

This course aims at introducing students a variety of tools used to conduct empirical quantitative research in political science. Also, to make students familiar with possibilities to apply social research methods based on quantitative data in political research. After the completion of the course students are expected to be competent to apply a chosen method in practice by carrying out their own survey or other research type and analyzing the results. We begin by considering what it means to be “scientific” and the assumptions behind a scientific approach to political inquiry. Then we explore concepts associated with quantitative political research and turn to issues of research design and measurement, including sampling and survey techniques. In the second part of the course we examine some statistical procedures (descriptive statistics– univariate, bivariate, multivariate data analysis) for describing the subjects of political inquiry (voters, organizations, nation-states, etc.) and for drawing inferences about why they think or behave the way they do.

To help students acquire the basic knowledge and skills on how to perform the research in political science by applying the necessary quantitative research methods and strategies.

Students should have some basic knowledge of political science which is possible to get by having the following bachelor courses: Introduction to Political Science, Qualitative research methods

The basic concepts, issues and history of Quantitative research. Reliability and validity in quantitative research. Ethical aspects of research. Survey types. Questionnaire Design: questions content, questions types, questions sequence, and the basic guidelines in order to avoid bias. Selection of the Respondents. Samples and sampling methods. Probability and nonprobability samples. The basic research elements: a) the selection of the research problem, b) definition and operationalization of concepts; c) variables and their types, measurement levels; d) formulation of hypotheses e) the design of the research model. Presentation of data. Report writing. Univariate quantitative analysis of the data: a) Frequency distribution; b) the characteristics of central tendency: mean, mode, median; c) the data dissemination: variance, standard deviation. The normal curve, sample asymmetry factor, the graphic depiction of the observations. Bivariate data analysis: a) the correlation b) cross-tabulation c) Regression analysis. Multivariate analysis of the data. Evaluation of results and hypothesis testing (inference statistics). All previous themes

Knowledge and ability to use necessary terminology and concepts of political quantitative research methods and strategies in a context and analysis. The knowledge of basic quantitative research methods and ability to explain how they are different from the other methods, where they are most beneficial to use; ability to design questionnaire and make the sampling. Ability to write a research plan and choose the right quantitative methods, relevant research material and sources. Knowledge how to select and perform appropriate statistical analyzes. The ability to understand, discuss and explain the quantitative research methodology used in the articles and monographs. Ability to prepare a quantitative statistical analysis of the data using the SPSS program.