Editing Political science (section)

===Behavioral revolution and new institutionalism===
In the 1950s and the 1960s, a [[Behavioralism|behavioral revolution]] stressing the systematic and rigorously scientific study of individual and group behavior swept the discipline. A focus on studying political behavior, rather than institutions or interpretation of legal texts, characterized early behavioral political science, including work by [[Robert Dahl]], [[Philip Converse]], and in the collaboration between sociologist [[Paul Lazarsfeld]] and public opinion scholar [[Bernard Berelson]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

The late 1960s and early 1970s witnessed a takeoff in the use of deductive, [[game theory|game-theoretic]] formal modelling techniques aimed at generating a more analytical corpus of knowledge in the discipline. This period saw a surge of research that borrowed theory and methods from economics to study political institutions, such as the United States Congress, as well as political behavior, such as voting. [[William H. Riker]] and his colleagues and students at the [[University of Rochester]] were the main proponents of this shift.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Despite considerable research progress in the discipline based on all types of scholarship discussed above, scholars have noted that progress toward systematic theory has been modest and uneven.<ref>Kim Quaile Hill, "In Search of General Theory", ''Journal of  Politics'' '''74''' (October 2012), 917–31.</ref>