POL 207 - POLITICAL ANALYSIS

Dr. Fred Inscho
St. Joe's Rm 217
229-3924

As a social science, Political Science seeks to develop knowledge about politics and government through systematic study and analysis, and by observing actual behavior. The extent to which the published results of a study are to be taken seriously will often depend upon the degree to which the research methods and data analysis underlying the study are deemed to be appropriate and effective. A person who wishes to become an effective student of the discipline needs to become familiar with the methods and techniques which researchers employ when they are engaged in such studies. This course is intended to assist students in developing that familiarity. A person who has successfully completed the course should be able to intelligently criticize work done by other persons in the field, and to use the discipline's basic methods to conduct his or her own research.

To accomplish this objective, students will be introduced to the discipline's scope, to the major sources of political, governmental, and policy information available to researchers, to the methods which are most often used for gathering information, and to the logic and process of social scientific data analysis.

More information about POL 207 may be found clicking on the POL 207 Web Site.