Research paper for political science
Research paper topics / political science research paper collection of almost 100 political science research paper topics and example papers on political science highlights the most important topics, issues, questions, and debates that any student obtaining a degree in this field ought to have mastered for effectiveness. The purpose is to provide students in political science with an authoritative reference sources and sample research papers that will help their writing efforts with far more detailed information than short have divided almost 100 political science research paper topics into six major parts:General approaches in political science,Comparative politics,International relations,Political science methodology,Political thought, ch paper topics in general approaches in political the history of the discipline (e. The behavioral revolution, the rise of neoinstitutionalism, and the postbehavioral critique), as well as several general approaches in political science (such as rational choice, political psychology, and principal–agent theory). Of political ality and rational pal–agent ch paper topics in comparative on topics related to political development (such as modernization theory, dependency and development, statism), political violence (e. Coups, civil wars, terrorism, ethnic conflict), political institutions (the effects of electoral laws, presidentialism, federalism, comparative judicial politics), political culture and civil society (religion and comparative politics, ethnic identity), and comparative methods (case studies, most-similar and most-different systems approaches). Theory and structural cal development and ency and cal and military ce scarcity and political lism, confederalism, unitary entialism vs ative judicial on and comparative and identity nmental politics and tarianism and ses of ch paper topics in international with essential topics in international relations, including research papers on realism and neorealism, liberalism, world-systems analysis, and foreign policy analysis. On the balance of power, rivalry and interstate war, and the democratic peace), international political economy (e. Of international m and sm and ency and n policy st international ship and decision y, conflict, and interstate politics of resources and x interdependence and ational political economy and te actors in international ational organizations and ational environmental ch paper topics in political science research paper ideas on the philosophy of science (including empirical approaches, positivism and its critique, and constructivism), followed by papers that illustrate commonly used quantitative and qualitative techniques (such as experimentation, and content analysis) and then by research papers on game theory and formal modeling approaches in political science. These research papers in particular are meant to be easily understandable to students who are just beginning to engage in political science ion of political vism and its ative vs quantitative theory and spatial ch paper topics in political e research ideas on political thought, not only western political thought but from elsewhere in the world as well. We have included research papers not only on the western classics (the “ancients,” enlightenment thinkers, neoclassical liberalism, socialism, anarchism, etc. The ability to view fundamental political issues from different points of view is, we believe, an essential skill students must have t political political c political ian political modern and classical ssical democratic liberalism, conservatism, and m and national onism and social sm, communism, stalinism, and ism in the developing ch paper topics on american e research papers on the political structures and institutions of the united states (including research papers that cover research on congress, the presidency, the bureaucracy, federalism, state and local politics, and the media) and political behavior (including public opinion and voting behavior, as well as policy making and administration). Furthermore, we have included papers on an increasingly important area in the study of american politics: identity politics. There are research papers that cover topics such as race, ethnicity, and politics; gender and politics; religion and politics; and lgbt issues and queer ng of the american political an judicial st groups and an political and local policy and cal an foreign , ethnicity, and and politics in the united on and politics in issues and the queer our collection of free political science research papers.
This collection of research papers on political science is an attempt to make fairly complex approaches in politics accessible to advanced undergraduate students and beginning graduate students. There is very little in the way of reference works in political science that are sufficiently accessible that students can profitably use them to assist the pursuit of their research paper writing. In particular, we have sought to make a collection that would provide students with the essentials of various approaches (both theoretical and methodological) in political science. Our focus on essentials has meant covering fairly broad areas in the discipline, rather than specific research paper topics. The classical and christian traditions of political philosophy postulated metaphysical first principles and relied on a process of deductive reasoning that sought to derive the moral and ethical principles of an ideal-state. Whether the ideal-state was ever achieved by any civilization was considered secondary to discovering the “highest good” that ought to guide citizens and political writings of niccolo machiavelli were the first to break with these traditions of political philosophy. Machiavelli believed that the study of political history could yield general principles to guide statesmen in the conduct of politics, diplomacy, and war. He studied existing and historical political institutions, and the actions of great statesmen, not for the purpose of discerning a morally ideal-state, but to identify institutional arrangements that would maintain social order and political stability. The separation of politics from any metaphysical or theological foundation led subsequent political philosophers to seek a new basis for legitimate political authority, although, in the end, solutions such as reason, natural law, custom, and tradition were superceded by the idea that sovereignty resides in a nation’s high quality custom sional writers rism-free guarantee. Promo code: ment of political to research a political science peter liberman, queens college dept. Of political science, september brief memo provides some guidance for students embarking on research projects in political science, perhaps their first. It addresses several questions beginning researchers must grapple with as they decide what to work on and how to proceed:What is a political science research paper? There are several different types, and understanding this is helpful for choosing a research kind of information is most useful for the various kinds of research papers?
Thinking this through will help orient students toward the kind of sources they will can college students find the best sources for their research? You may have a general topic in mind, but it is unwise to start researching (not to mention writing) until you've narrowed down the topic down to a clear question. This will help you to narrow down the research sources you'll be looking for, and to write a coherent, focused useful research solves problems, it is best to focus on questions where incomplete or flawed understanding impedes progress. Otherwise, your paper may end up an exercise in exhortation ("if we could only all stop building weapons" or "if everyone would only just stop burning fossil fuels") rather than in ing researchers may want to cut their teeth on questions that have already been answered by others with more knowledge and experience. But as you get to be a more advanced researcher, you'll want to tackle questions that haven't been answered yet, at least not are several kinds of questions that political science students (and scholars) tackle. All are valid and important contributions to political science and practical policy -proposing projects advance a deductive argument for new hypotheses about the way the world works (or, in the case of political theory, the way it should work). Kinds of political science requires research, unless you are a genius spinning out original theoretical deductions from the armchair! The kind of research you need to do depends on the type of question and research project you are pursuing, as well as what kinds of relevant information, evidence, data, etc. But it is very difficult to come up with new theoretical insights without first mastering prior theoretical and empirical research on a subject (e. Sometimes theoretical insights develop in the course of empirical research, other times by finding theories used to explain related or analogous phenomena, but not yet to the one at -testing research uses evidence intensively. Political scientists use all sorts of evidence: history, interviews of officials or elites, data on public opinion and any other variable bearing on political behavior, and even laboratory simulations. Taking projects primarily require finding the best and most complete published research on a particular ical explanation is like theory testing research, except restricted to a single historical episode. The research required is primarily primary and secondary historical analysis requires finding the best arguments for a policy, as well as existing theoretical, empirical, and theory-testing research to verify the arguments' factual and theoretical assumptions.
A researcher might also engage in his or her own original deductive and empirical work to this tive projects requires evidence on current events, and finding the best theoretical and theory-testing research bearing on the phenomena you wish to predict. Research at the undergraduate level, due to time and resource constraints, is conducted in the library or using electronic media (via the internet). Indeed, many a political science professional has written theory-proposing, theory-testing, historical explanation, policy analysis, or predictive works relying on purely or mainly library course, your college library is a lot smaller than leading research libraries, lacking not only their immense holdings of journals and books, but also some useful bibliographic tools. But one of the best research libraries in the world is right in manhattan, the new york public library's research branch at 41st street and fifth ave. The research branch's stacks are closed and its books do not circulate; you must request each book you want and use it in the reading room). In addition, your library subscribes to some powerful on-line bibliographic tools, reference works, and full-text newspapers, policy journals, and scholarly journals. As a general rule, it is usually inadvisable to use as a research source information from the world wide web that has not also been published in a reputable press or journal. If your research requires scholarly books or articles or news accounts, particularly if recent, you will probably want to try first on-line catalogues and bibliographic tools. Unfortunately, there is no single master database containing all useful sources, so you may have to learn your way around a few collections and their search helpful technique for finding relevant works is to find a high-caliber research work that addresses the question you're interested in, and cites in the footnotes what the author believes to be the best work on the subject. Sometimes you might find whole review essays (stock-taking research) surveying the literature on your question. For this purpose, recent works are usually better than older ones; even if they are of inferior quality or say nothing new, they might cite more recently published the above method works backward, by looking for citations to prior research, a neat bibliography called the social sciences citation index (ssci) allows you to work forward. Political science research resources available at rosenthal library and the new york public e and abstract databases (qc only). Social science : academic search -copy sources, available in rosenthal ational political science abstracts (qc has 1968-present).
Full-text scholarly journals, usually just recent library resources:Law research -nexis academic universe: legal research collection (available through the qc library). Further reading on how to do political science n van evera, guide to methods for students of political science (ithaca: cornell university press, 1997). A great common sense guide to political science research, aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students, with a focus on case study c. An enlightening general guide for understanding what research is all about, and for writing research papers in all fields. Aimed at preparing students to understand quantitative political science research; includes some statistics buttolph johnson and richard a. A comprehensive survey of political science research methods, with lots of ch and writing to write a political science to research a polticial science raduate to write a political science research to access scott schaffer's page on information resources at bailey/y for pols an event or topic related to this course that interests igate the ces and other available resources. Choose to investigate a topic for which you must rely heavily on , you may not receive enough material in time to complete your research. Find there is not enough material on your topic, choose a and begin a new search to see if you can successfully complete ch for your paper on your new generally in the topic area of your n a precise question that you wish to research. Note: a question, your research question must end with a question question might ing like:under what x occur? Affects a countrys development and you do not need to do persuade the reader of ,Such a question is too broad for a focused research too encompassing a not in a single paper analyze all of the effects of war on the an entire through what you need to know in order to answer your research question. Provide the reader with evidence you discovered in your research de the reader that your answer is correct. Are still exploring your topic when you are writing your paper cannot even form a question and offer and answer you will be ons for all data used in the must have the citation style used in the american political science review. Find electronic copies of the journal by going to the library select general reference then select journals and magazines jstor then enter jstor and select browse the journal then cal science then select american political science review a volume and an issue and finally select view atively, you can follow the style of footnotes presented in the will see that the apsr uses parenthetical references to the the date in the body of the text.
Complete citation for each reference is listed in alphabetical rized papers will be reported to the committee on academic honesty. Cite your , however, you think general x should have thought that, or most t that, but you have no evidence and no sources, you may not a statement in a scholarly paper. Try to suggest that figments of your imagination are the result cannot submit a paper that is merely a string of quotes from s. When you write a paper,Your thesis (the argument you make to answer your research question) t your own (original) thinking. For journal articles related to your research listic sources include the ladb, newspapers, and magazines. Can read the language of the country you are studying, then major newspapers from that country on the y materials include official documents, government hearings, treaties,State department bulletins, speeches, memoirs, interviews, world bank ational monetary fund statistics, government statistics. Reference librarians are a good resource and you should for questions about ead the paper. The more proofread and rewrite the paper, the better the paper will be and your grade will er, for your paper, you need to add something to the work of s, you should not just repeat someone elses ze your paper in the following way:The paper by identifying your research question. Thesis a quick version of your answer to the research question (ture review: existing scholarly literature that relates to your question and the existing literature does not sufficiently address the pose, thus telling the reader why your research had to be why your paper must be read if the reader is interested in the your important evidence so that it supports your thesis (that is the answer to sion: findings and restate your thesis, which answers your research question. To write a sophisticated paper, you should research in light of the important theories of political ask a question and offer an answer that either confirms or disconfirms. Theory in the research a question and discover that there does not exist any in the field to offer insight into your research case, you might analyze the existing literature and explain how ch offers a hypothesis to explain why some phenomena e to the companion your students to write their first major political science research paper with confidence? Author lisa baglione breaks down the research paper into its constituent parts and shows students precisely how to complete each component. Students are shown how to craft the right research question, find good sources and properly summarize them, operationalize concepts, design good tests for their hypotheses, and present and analyze quantitative and qualitative data.
Practical summaries, recipes for success, worksheets, exercises, and a series of handy checklists make this a must-have supplement for any writing-intensive political science this third edition of writing a research paper in political science, updated sample research topics come from american government, gender studies, comparative politics, and international relations.