This document provides an overview of key concepts and theories in political science. It lists readings in several areas: epistemology and method; comparison; rational choice; institutions; culture; power; pluralist and Marxist analyses; the state; representation and accountability; constructivism; and predicting and advising. The readings cover foundational texts and debates across these core topics in the discipline.

1. Building Blocks of Political
Science
Chris Hanretty
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2. Parts of the outline
Who teaches this module?
Aims and objectives
How is this module taught?
Expectations
Assessment
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3. Epistemology and Method
Goodin, R. and Klingeman, H. (1998). Political Science: The
Discipline. In Goodin, R. and Klingeman, H., editors, A new handbook
of political science, pages 3--49. Oxford University Press
Goertz, G. (2012). Descriptive-causal generalizations : "empirical
laws" in the social sciences? In Kincaid, H., editor, The Oxford
Handbook of Philosophy of Social Science. Oxford University Press,
pp. 1-7 and 17-end of the online version in draft.
Hollis, M. (1994). The Philosophy of Social Science: An Introduction.
Cambridge University Press, chapter 3
Machlup, F. (1961). Are the social sciences really inferior? Southern
Economic Journal, pages 173--184
MacIntyre, A. (1973). Is a Science of Comparative Politics Possible? In
Against the self-images of the age : essays on ideology and
philosophy, London. Duckworth
Stillwaggon Swan, L. (2011). Sir Karl Popper's Demarcation Argument.
In Bruce, M. and Barbone, S., editors, Just the Arguments: 100 of the
Most Important Arguments in Western Philosophy, pages 339--340.
Blackwell
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4. Comparison
Eckstein, H. (1975). Case study and theory in political science. In
Polsby, N. W. and Greenstein, F., editors, Handbook of political
science, volume 7, pages 79--137. Addison-Wesley, Vol. 7, pp.
79--138.
Gerring, J. (2004). What is a case study and what is it good for?
American Political Science Review, 98(02):341--354.
Landman, T. (2008). Issues and methods in comparative politics: an
introduction. Psychology Press, pp. 23--50, 67--84.
Lijphart, A. (1971). Comparative politics and the comparative method.
The American Political Science Review, 65(3):682--693.
Przeworski, A. and Teune, H. (1970). The logic of comparative social
inquiry. Wiley-Interscience New York, pp. 31--46.
Ragin, C. and Becker, H. (1992). What is a case?: exploring the
foundations of social inquiry. Cambridge Univ Pr, pp. 1--17.
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5. Rational choice
Axelrod, R. (1984). The evolution of co-operation. Basic Books, New
York, pp. 3--87.
Bowles, S. and Gintis, H. (2006). Social preferences, homo
economicus, and Zoon Politikon. In Goodin, R. E. and Tilly, C.,
editors, The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis, pages
172--186. Oxford University Press
Edlin, A., Gelman, A., and Kaplan, N. (2007). Voting as a Rational
Choice. Rationality and society, 19(3):293.
Green, D. and Shapiro, I. (1996). Pathologies of Rational Choice
Theory: A Critique of Applications in Political Science. Yale University
Press, pp. 47--71.
Hargreaves Heap, S. and Varoufakis, Y. (1994). Game Theory: A
Critical Introduction. Routledge, pp. 1 -- 40.
Hindmoor, A. (2010). Rational choice. In Stoker, G. and Marsh, D.,
editors, Theory and Methods in Political Science. Palgrave Macmillan
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6. Institutions
Hall, P. and Taylor, R. (1996). Political science and the three new
institutionalisms*. Political studies, 44(5):936--957
Lowndes, V. (2010). Institutionalism. In Stoker, G. and Marsh, D.,
editors, Theory and Methods in Political Science. Palgrave Macmillan.
Steinmo, S., Thelen, K., and Longstreth, F. (1992). Structuring politics:
historical institutionalism in comparative analysis. Cambridge
University Press, pp. 1--32.
Steinmo, S. (2008). Historical Institutionalism. In Della Porta, D. and
M., K., editors, Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences,
pages 118--138. Cambridge University Press
Streeck, W. and Thelen, K. (2005). Beyond continuity: institutional
change in advanced political economies. Oxford University Press,
USA, pp. 1--40.
Thelen, K. (1999). Historical institutionalism in comparative politics.
Annual Review of Political Science, 2(1):369--404.
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7. Culture
Hood, C. (1995). Control over bureaucracy: cultural theory and
institutional variety. Journal of Public Policy, 15:207--230
Huntington, S. (1993). The clash of civilizations. Foreign Affairs,
72(3):22--49.
Inglehart, R. and Welzel, C. (2010). Changing mass priorities: The link
between modernization and democracy. Perspectives on Politics,
8(2):551--567
Putnam, R. (1995). Robert d. putnam. Bowling alone: America's
declining social capital, Journal of Democracy, 6(1):65--78
Stolle, D. and Hooghe, M. (2005). Inaccurate, exceptional, one-sided
or irrelevant? the debate about the alleged decline of social capital
and civic engagement in western societies. British Journal of Political
Science, 35(1):149--167
Wildavsky, A. (1987). Choosing preferences by constructing
institutions: A cultural theory of preference formation. The American
political science review, pages 4--21
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8. Power
Bachrach, P., Baratz, M., Goldberg, R., Davies, B., Taylor, J., Baratz, M.,
and Levi, M. (1970). Power and poverty: Theory and practice. Oxford
University Press.
Dahl, R. (1961). Who governs? Yale University Press New Haven.
Dowding, K. (2006). Three-dimensional power: A discussion of
steven lukes’ power: A radical view. Political studies review,
4(2):136--145
Frank, T. (2005). What's the matter with Kansas?: how conservatives
won the heart of America. Holt Paperbacks.
Gramsci, A. (1996). Prison notebooks. Columbia University Press,
New York. Counts as two items.
Lukes, S. (1974). Power: A radical view. Macmillan, London.
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9. Pluralist and Marxist analyses
Cohen, G. (2000). Karl Marx's theory of history: a defence. Oxford
University Press
Dahl, R. (1961). Who governs? Yale University Press New Haven
Elster, J. (1986). An Introduction to Karl Marx. Cambridge University
Press.
Goodwin, B. (2007). Using political ideas. John Wiley & Sons Inc,
chapter ``Marxism''.
Held, D. (2006). Models of democracy. Polity Press, chapters 5, 6,
and 8.
McFarland, A. (2007). Neopluralism. Annual Review of Political
Science, 10(1):45.
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10. The state
¨
Back, H. and Hadenius, A. (2008). Democracy and state capacity:
Exploring a j-shaped relationship. Governance, 21(1):1--24
Evans, P., Rueschemeyer, D., and Skocpol, T. (1985). Bringing the state
back in. Cambridge University Press, ch. 1
Nettl, J. (1968). The state as a conceptual variable. World politics,
20(04):559--592, ch. 1
Savigny, H. and Marsden, L. (2011). Doing Political Science and
International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, chapter ``The State''.
Weber, M., Gerth, H., Gerth, H., and Mills, C. (1991). From Max Weber:
essays in sociology. Routledge, chapter ``Politics as a vocation''.
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11. Being represented and being accountable
Dovi, S. (2006). Political Representation. Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. Available from:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/political-representation/.
Pitkin, H. (1984). The concept of representation. University of
California Press.
Przeworski, A., Stokes, S., and Manin, B. (1999). Democracy,
accountability, and representation. Cambridge University Press.
Philp, M. (2009). Delimiting democratic accountability. Political
Studies, 57(1):28--53.
Roemer, J. (2009). Why does the Republican Party win half the votes?
In Shapiro, I., Stokes, S. C., Jean Wood, E., and Kirshner, A. S., editors,
Political representation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
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12. Constructivism
Berger, P. and Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality:
A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Anchor Books.
Checkel, J. (2007). Handbook of European Union Politics, chapter
Constructivism and EU politics, pages 57--76. Sage.
Hacking, I. (1999). The social construction of what? Harvard
University Press.
Searle, J. R. (1995). The Construction of Social Reality. Penguin,
London.
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13. Predicting and advising
Menand, L. (2005). Everybody's an expert. New Yorker. Available
from: http:
//www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/05/051205crbo_{}books1
Popper, K. (2002). Conjectures and refutations: The growth of
scientific knowledge. Psychology Press, chapter ``Prediction and
Prophecy in the Social Sciences''
Dubner, S. (2012). The cobra effect. Podcast. Available from:
http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/10/11/
the-cobra-effect-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/
Chrystal, A. and Mizen, P. (2003). Goodhart’s law: Its origins, meaning
and implications for monetary policy. In Central Banking, Monetary
Theory and Practice: Essays in Honour of Charles Goodhart. Edward
Elgar. Available from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/
download?doi=10.1.1.201.1777&rep=rep1&type=pdf
M.D. (2012). Changes in the forecast. The Economist. Available from:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/07/
political-science?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/changesintheforescast
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14. Questions?
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