Experimental political science

Experimental political science is the use of experiments, which may be natural or controlled, to implement the scientific method in political science.

History and usage

The first experiment in political science is generally regarded to be Harold Gosnell's 1924 study on voter turnout in Chicago.^[1] In this experiment, he randomly assigned districts to receive information on voter registration and encouragements to vote.^[2]

Since then, experimental research has become a growing area of political science. The publication of experimental research articles in flagship political science journals has risen, especially since the 1980s. Moreover, citation analysis indicates that articles using experimental methods have higher rates of citation.

Among the areas that it is used in are:

• Political psychology, including survey methodology, loss aversion, influences on voter turnout, and media influence;
• The effects on outcomes of different voting systems (e.g., storable votes), including the study of tactical voting;
• The political economy of development;^[3]
• International relations^[4]

and

• Interactions and voting in legislatures (and other deliberative assemblies), including the effects of different voting methods and control of the agenda.^[5]

See also

• Experimental economics
• Experimental psychology
• Psephology
• Public choice theory
• Social choice theory
• Issue voting

Notes

1. Morton, Rebecca B.; Williams, Kenneth C. "Experimentation in Political Science" (PDF). The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
2. Gosnell, Harold F. (1926). "An Experiment in the Stimulation of Voting" (PDF). American Political Science Review. 20 (4): 869–874. doi:10.2307/1945435. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
3. Humphreys, Macartan; Weinstein, Jeremy (2009). "Field experiments and the Political Economy of Development". Annual Review of Political Science. 12: 367–378. doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.12.060107.155922. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
4. Hyde, Susan D. (2010). "The future of field experiments in International Relations". The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 628 (1): 72–84. doi:10.1177/0002716209351513. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
5. Riker, William (1988) [First published in 1982]. Liberalism Against Populism. Prospect Heights, Illinois, USA: Waveland Press. ISBN 0-88133-367-0.

References

• Druckman, James; Green, Donald; Kuklinski, James; Lupia, Arthur (November 2006). "The Growth and Development of Experimental Research in Political Science" (PDF). American Political Science Review. 100 (4): 627–635. doi:10.1017/S0003055406062514.

Further reading

• Kinder, Donald; Palfrey, Thomas, eds. (1993). Experimental Foundations of Political Science. Michigan studies in political analysis. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-08181-3.
• Morton, Rebecca; Williams, Kenneth, eds. (2010). Experimental Political Science and the Study of Causality: From Nature to the Lab. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-13648-8.
• Druckman, James; Green, Donald; Kuklinski, James; et al., eds. (2011). Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-17455-8.

External links

• NYU Center on Experimental Social Science
• The Experiments in Governance and Politics research network
• Experimental Research, an organized section of the American Political Science Association