This book presents a readily accessible, systematic approach to politics and its principles, around which political inquiry should be organized. Readers are exposed to materials on the fundamental assumptions of political inquiry in addition to the specific devices necessary for gathering and collecting data about political phenomena.

Methods for Political Inquiry represents the only book currently available that covers the full range of both research methods and research techniques. It incorporates both normative and empirical theory building, as well as qualitative and quantitative research methods, to emphasize why researchers might use one technique over another.

I. THE DISCIPLINE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE.

1. Where We Stand Today: The State of Modern Political Science, Stella Z. Theodoulou & Rory O'Brien.
2. What Is Politics? Robert Dahl.
3. The State in Political Study: How We Become What We Study, Theodore Lowi.
4. Feminist Challenges to Political Science, Susan J. Carroll and Linda M.G. Zerilli.

II. THE PHILOSOPHICAL DEBATE: THEORIES AND PARADIGMS.

5. Normative versus Empirical Theory and Method, Rory O'Brien.
6. Actual Constitutions and Their Varieties, Aristotle.
7. Of the Three Kinds of Government: Democracy, Aristocracy, Monarchy, Thomas Hobbes.
8. Philosophy after Its Completion, Karl Marx.
9. A Role for History and Progress through Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn.
10. Scientific Principles in Political Study: Some Enduring Situations, Marcus E. Ethridge.

III. THE ANALYSIS OF POLITICS.

11. Starting from Scratch: The Research Process, Stella Z. Theodoulou.
12. There's Method to this Madness: The Fundamentals of Applied Social Statistics, Stella Z. Theodoulou.
13. How to Statisticulate, and How to Talk Back to a Statistic, Darrell Huff.
14. Surfing Bytes: Utilizing the Internet and Your Computer for Social Science Research, Stella Z.Theoudoulou, Paula Lackie, Matthew A. Cahn.
15. Formal Models in Political Science, Morris P. Fiorina.

Appendix A: Additional Articles Illustrating the Political Research Process.
Appendix B: Resources for Research.
Appendix C: Putting It All Together: The Research Paper.