Formation/Cours

In the broadest sense, political science is about observing the political landscape and trying to explain what is being observed. Political scientists look for explanations for changes (or stability) in attitudes, they look for explanations why certain countries adopt stricter climate regulations, or they try to investigate the effects of wars on societies. To answer these questions, researchers can formulate hypotheses and gather evidence in the form of data in order to test which explanations approximate reality. This course provides the foundations for a quantitative approach to political science by providing the essential empirical methods for evaluating and conducting (quantitative) political science research. This course offers the students of the M2 an introduction into quantitative political science in three different blocs. First, the course sets up the foundations of quantitative social science research, including conceptualization, theorybuilding, measurement and research design. concepts such as survey error, representativeness and attitudes. Second, we will focus on the foundations of statistical inference setting up students to be able to evaluate and conduct statistical procedures. More importantly, students will understand the fundamentals of statistical inference. This includes controlled comparisons, significance tests, correlations and regression analyses. All these concepts will be introduced theoretically, supported by empirical applications from scientific research. Third, the course covers more advanced quantitative techniques starting off with the theoretical basis of the potential outcomes framework before covering the experimental logic of experiments and providing the example of survey experiments as an application. Overall, this course offers a fundamental understanding of quantitative methods in political science that provides students with analytical and practical knowledge on how to evaluate previous research and to conduct original and methodologically sound quantitative research in political science.

LEARNING OUTCOMES Upon completion of this course, students will

● Have a basic understanding of the theoretical foundations and concept of quantitative social science research

● Have a basic understanding of the foundations of statistical inference and more advanced methods of quantitative political science

● Be able to relate this theoretical understanding to empirical data and analyses.

● Be able to propose and conduct quantitative research, for example in the form of a Master thesis.

● Have strengthened their analytical skills and apply them to the analysis of real-world political events.