Explain the methods used by political scientists to construct knowledge and
communicate inferences and explanations about political systems, institutional
interactions, and behavior.
The main method used by political scientists to construct knowledge and
communicate inferences and explanations about political systems, institutional
interactions, and behavior is by gathering and analyzing qualitative and quantitative
data such as statistical graphs, charts and tables, speeches, original documents, maps
and even political cartoons.
One-way political scientists construct their arguments is through the quantitative
method. Quantitative methods usually involve making some kind of comparison
between two or more countries. Political scientists, for example, can use quantitative
research method in order to analyze empirical data and come to a conclusion about
political behavior of certain individuals or groups. The main purpose of analyzing
quantitative data is to be able to correctly evaluate the political systems in different
countries, differentiate between different branches of government and accurately
describe the interactions those branches have.
Empirical data itself is a very important aspect of political science. By observing
and experimenting, political scientists are able to explain nuances of different political
systems, explain political interaction and behavior of certain political groups and/or
individuals. One of the major aspects of quantitative research method is the analysis of
objective measurements such as surveys, polls and any other available empirical data.
Analyzing qualitative data can be a little bit more tricky as qualitative data refers
to the information that is very hard to evaluate through mathematical methods.
Examples of qualitative data would be original documents, political cartoons and
speeches. Nevertheless, qualitative data is well widely used to compare and contrast
different countries on all political levels.
In order to reach a conclusion, political scientists usually need to establish either
a correlation or a causation. Correlation refers to a scenario when two or more variables
gathered/studied by the scientist somehow associate with one another. Causation, on
the other hand focuses on initial actions and their consequences in the political world.
In my opinion, the AP course includes the following six countries: China, Russia,
Mexico, Iran, United Kingdom and Nigeria due to a purpose of comparison. All
countries, to certain extent, have different political systems, government structure and
regimes. As the purpose of this course is to compare and contrast different political
practices, the six countries chosen by AP suit the purpose well. The six countries
provide examples of different levels of political stability and legitimacy, identify
differences in unitary and federal systems and compare different political regimes such
as democracy vs authoritarianism.