Editing Political science (section)

==Research methods==
{{main article|Political methodology}}

Political science is [[methodology|methodologically]] diverse and appropriates many methods originating in psychology, [[social research]], political philosophy, and many others, in addition to those that developed chiefly within the field of political science. 

Political scientists approach the study of politics from a host of different ontological orientations and with a variety of different tools. Because political science is essentially a study of [[human behavior]], in all aspects of [[politics]], observations in controlled environments are often challenging to reproduce or duplicate, though [[experiment]]al methods are increasingly common (see [[experimental political science]]).<ref>{{Cite book |title=Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0521174558|editor1-link=James N. Druckman |editor-last=Druckman |editor-first=James |location=New York |editor-last2=Green |editor-first2=Donald |editor-last3=Kuklinski |editor-first3=James |editor-last4=Lupia |editor-first4=Arthur |display-editors=2}}</ref> Citing this difficulty, former [[American Political Science Association]] President [[Lawrence Lowell]] once said "We are limited by the impossibility of experiment. Politics is an observational, not an experimental science."<ref name=":0">Lowell, A. Lawrence. 1910. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1944407 The Physiology of Politics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809185806/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1944407 |date=9 August 2020 }}." ''American Political Science Review'' 4: 1–15.</ref> Because of this, political scientists have historically observed political elites, institutions, and individual or group behaviour in order to identify patterns, draw generalizations, and build theories of politics.

Like all social sciences, political science faces the difficulty of observing human actors that can only be partially observed and who have the capacity for making conscious choices, unlike other subjects, such as non-human organisms in [[biology]], minerals in [[geoscience]], chemical elements in [[chemistry]], stars in [[astronomy]], or particles in [[physics]]. Despite the complexities, contemporary political science has progressed by adopting a variety of methods and theoretical approaches to understanding politics, and [[methodology|methodological]] pluralism is a defining feature of contemporary political science.

Empirical political science methods include the use of field experiments,<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Nahomi Ichino |author2=Noah L. Nathan |title=Crossing the Line: Local Ethnic Geography and Voting in Ghana |journal=American Political Science Review |volume=107 |issue=2 |pages=344–361 |date=May 2013 |doi=10.1017/S0003055412000664 |s2cid=9092626}}</ref> surveys and survey experiments,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=The Progress and Pitfalls of Using Survey Experiments in Political Science |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia |date=February 2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford}}</ref> case studies,<ref>{{cite book |first=Theda |last=Skocpol |year=1979 |title=States and Social Revolutions |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521294997}}</ref> process tracing,<ref>{{cite journal |first=James |last=Mahoney |title=The Logic of Process Tracing Tests in the Social Sciences |journal=Sociological Methods & Research |volume=41 |issue=4 |date=2 March 2012 |pages=570–597 |doi=10.1177/0049124112437709 |s2cid=122335417}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Sherry |last=Zaks |title=Relationships Among Rivals (RAR): A Framework for Analyzing Contending Hypotheses in Process Tracing |journal=Political Analysis |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=344–362 |date=July 2017 |doi=10.1017/pan.2017.12 |s2cid=125814475}}</ref> historical and institutional analysis,<ref>{{cite journal |first=Kathleen |last=Thelen |title=Historical institutionalism in comparative politics |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |volume=2 |pages=369–404 |year=1999 |doi=10.1146/annurev.polisci.2.1.369 |doi-access=free}}</ref> ethnography,<ref>{{cite journal |first=Evelyn Z. |last=Brodkin |title=The Ethnographic Turn in Political Science: Reflections on the State of the Art |journal=PS: Political Science & Politics |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=131–134 |date=January 2017 |doi=10.1017/S1049096516002298 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |s2cid=152094822}}</ref> participant observation,<ref>{{cite book |first=Katherine J. |last=Cramer |year=2016 |title=The Politics of Resentment |publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref> and interview research.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Layna Mosley |year=2013 |title=Interview Research in Political Science |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0801478635}}</ref>

Political scientists also use and develop theoretical tools like game theory and agent-based models to study a host of political systems and situations.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Morris P. |last=Fiorina |title=Formal Models in Political Science |journal=American Journal of Political Science |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=133–159 |date=February 1975 |doi=10.2307/2110698 |jstor=2110698}}</ref> Other approaches include the study of equation-based models and opinion dynamics.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Segovia-Martin |first1=Jose |last2=Rivero |first2=Oscar |title=Cross-border political competition |journal=PLOS ONE |date=May 29, 2024 |volume=19 |issue=5 |pages=e0297731 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0297731 |doi-access=free |pmid=38809861 |pmc=11135741 |bibcode=2024PLoSO..1997731S }}</ref>

Political theorists approach theories of political phenomena with a similar diversity of positions and tools, including [[feminist political theory]], historical analysis associated with the [[Cambridge School (intellectual history)|Cambridge school]], and [[Leo Strauss#Straussianism|Straussian approaches]].

Political science may overlap with topics of study that are the traditional focuses of other social sciences—for example, when sociological [[Social norm|norms]] or psychological [[Cognitive bias|biases]] are connected to political phenomena. In these cases, political science may either inherit their methods of study or develop a contrasting approach.<ref name=wedeen02>{{cite journal |first=Lisa |last=Wedeen |author-link=Lisa Wedeen |title=Conceptualizing Culture: Possibilities for Political Science |journal=The American Political Science Review |volume=95 |issue=4 |pages=713–728 |date=December 2002 |doi=10.1017/S0003055402000400 |s2cid=145130880}}</ref> For example, [[Lisa Wedeen]] has argued that political science's approach to the idea of culture, originating with [[Gabriel Almond]] and [[Sidney Verba]] and exemplified by authors like [[Samuel P. Huntington]], could benefit from aligning more closely with the study of culture in anthropology.<ref name=wedeen02/> In turn, methodologies that are developed within political science may influence how researchers in other fields, like public health, conceive of and approach political processes and policies.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Nicole F. Bernier |author2=Carole Clavier |title=Public health policy research: making the case for a political science approach |journal=Health Promotion International |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=109–116 |date=1 March 2011 |doi=10.1093/heapro/daq079 |pmid=21296911 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The most common piece of academic writing in generalist political sciences is the research paper, which investigates an original [[research question]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Schmidt |first=Diane E. |title=Political Inquiry |date=2019-01-14 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781351252843-1 |work=Writing in Political Science |pages=1–25 |location=New York|publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781351252843-1 |isbn=978-1351252843 |access-date=2021-09-25 |archive-date=3 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220403174950/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781351252843-1/political-inquiry-diane-schmidt |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Political Science |url=https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/political-science/ |access-date=2021-09-25 |website=The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |language=en-US |archive-date=25 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925233648/https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/political-science/ |url-status=live }}</ref>