Political Methodology

Political Methodology is a basic component of modern Political Science. The OSU field in Political Methodology includes a wide variety of courses and related programs.

Faculty: Janet Box-Steffensmeier, Bear Braumoeller, Ted Hopf, Luke Keele, Marcus Kurtz, Corrine McConnaughy, Kathleen McGraw, William Minozzi, Tom Nelson, Irfan Nooruddin, Brian Pollins, Craig Volden, Herb Weisberg, Alexander Wendt, Alan Wiseman, and Jack Wright.

The basic Political Methodology courses that are offered on a yearly basis:

• Math Workshop for Political Science
• Research Design
• Basic Statistics
• Regression Analysis
• Maximum Likelihood Analysis

Additional advanced statistical courses that are offered:

• Time Series Analysis
• Event History
• Scaling and Dimensional Analysis
• Bayesian Analysis
• Computational Modeling
• Cross-level Inference
• Measurement
• Panel Data Analysis

Courses in the research design area:

• Questions in Surveys
• Experimental Methods
• Survey Research Practicum
• Qualitative Methodology

There are also several excellent statistical methods courses taught in the OSU Departments of Statistics, Economics, Sociology, and Psychology.

Additionally, there are several related programs at OSU:

• PRISM: The PRogram In Statistics and Methodology and the related Political Research Laboratory
• The OSU Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Survey Research and the related OSU Center for Survey Research
• ITV: The Interactive Television cooperative program with the Universities of Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, which provides regular access to a wide variety of advanced statistical courses
• ICPSR: The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research in Ann Arbor, including its Summer Program

As of January 2007, graduate students can take Political Methodology as their major field, along with American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, or Political Theory as their minor.  Graduate students taking a minor in Political Methodology either can focus exclusively on statistical modeling or can take a combination of courses in statistical modeling, research design, and/or a special topics area. Additionally, students can take a joint minor in Political Methodology and Formal Theory. Political Methodology is also available as a Major, either by itself or jointly with Formal Theory.