Term Paper
Future Research in American Politics
Choose a political institution of most interest to you.
- President/Presidency
- U S. Congress
- U S Supreme Court
- Political Parties
- Interest Groups
or...
Choose a political "behavior" of most interest to you.
- Acquisition or change of political opinions
- Socialization to politics
- Voting (turnout)
- Voting for a specific candidate or party
- Participation, other than voting
Part 1
What have we learned about (X) from existing research? For example, What questions about the operation, politics, or effectiveness of this institution seem well answered? What explanations most satisfy you about how we understand this political behavior? What evidence supports your conclusions? What theory and/or evidence contradicts your conclusions? Why are these alternative explanations or contrary evidence not conclusive? What questions seem less well answered or not discussed at all?
Part 2.
Take a question or set of questions in the latter categories ("less well" or "not at all") and respond to the following queries and directions:
Write a research design laying out the way you'd design a study to answer your question(s). Money is no object. But be clear why the study would be productive and defend each decision you make with regard to what to study and what to ignore, what data is appropriate and what is not, how you would conceptualize and operationalize key concepts, etc. Questions to consider include:
Why is your question a "good one"?
What makes it interesting to Political Science?
What theory(ies) would you use to try to answer this question? (How does the theory inform what question you chose, what type of answer you expect?)
What type(s) of data or information would you collect to try to answer the question(s)? (Be specific. Very.)
Due: End of Week 14 (April 25th)
Length: 15-25 pages, typed/double-spaced/1 staple