Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science Reprint Edition

It’s like having your favorite professor available 24/7 for consultation.

Excellent introductory read for students and begginers in research.

Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science by Stephen Van Evera is a straightforward guide on the basic elements of producing quality graduate-level theories and papers that are required of that level of study. To some, the advice found in these pages may prove to be repetitious and common sense, but I personally found the sections on theories and case studies to be a highly useful tool to reinforce the core ideas of graduate level writing that grad students sometimes forget in their zeal over their research interests and meeting those deadlines. One drawback, is that it is geared towards graduate students who study international relations where the case study method is most prevalent. In other segments of the field, the large-n- method is empathized, meaning that other students using that method may need another book. Overall though, most students of political science should find something useful in this book.

Just needed this for class, but it seemed like a well written book.

Love the book = great transaction.

In this book Mr. Van Evera introduces the reader to the gospel of arrow diagraming, in which all political science theories must be drawn as letters, representing variables, with arrows (representing causality) connecting them. Thus, to quote Van Evera, "a theory that cannot be arrow-diagrammed is not a theory and needs reframing to become a theory." Thus, by his measure, much of the poli sci "theories" are not theories at all. So what are GOOD theories, for van Evera, besides those that are easily arrow-diagramed?Theories are general statements that describe and explain the causes or effects of classes of phenomena. They are composed of causal laws or hypotheses, explanations, and antecedent conditions. Explanations are also composed of causal laws or hypotheses, which are in turn composed of dependent and independent variables. A good theory has 7 characteristics: it has large explanatory power (importance, explanatory range, applicability), and is parsimonious, satisfying, clearly framed, falsifiable, explains important phenomena, and has "prescriptive richness."In short, the book might teach newbies a thing or two about methodological rigor and research design, but is certainly no model of sophistication. In fact, the book is a perfect example of why American political "science" is sometimes mocked by the rest of the academic world.

Some say that this book is not a guide to methods, or that it is certainly no model of sophistication. As such, I was skeptical about reading it, but once I did, I realized that Van Evera never does say that he will make the book for such a purpose. "I make no effort to cover the methodological waterfront." (p.1) As such, I think many reviews it receives are unmerited. Instead, I found this book very useful, even as a graduate student who has done many research methods already. Beauty of Van Evera's approach is that he offers an ESSENTIAL guide to those starting social science (I wish I had read this book when starting university), but even for older students, they can find practical advice on different issues, and clarification on topics that others don't explain as clearly (particularity in my previous class we had a big problem over defining 'method of agreement' vs. 'method of difference'). The book puts many complex topics in simplistic terms which helps keep thoughts organized. As such it is a necessary but not sufficient guide to methods for students of political science.

I knew the book was slightly used, but it did not mention the amount of highlighting and underlining in the book. That being said, it is helpful to bring my attention to the important points...but the writing on the pages were not mentioned.