Essex Summer School in
Social Science Data Analysis

Todd Landman

Todd Landman is a Professor in the Department of Government and Director of the Centre for Democratic Governance at the University of Essex. He is author of Studying Human Rights (Routledge 2006), Protecting Human Rights (Georgetown University Press 2005), Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics (Routledge 2000, 2003, 2008); co-author of Assessing the Quality of Democracy (IDEA 2008), Governing Latin America (Polity 2003), and Citizenship Rights and Social Movements (Oxford 1997; editor of Human Rights Volumes I-IV (Sage 2009), and co-editor of the Sage Handbook of Comparative Politics (Sage 2009) and Real Social Science (Cambridge forthcoming).

1L Research Design and Comparative Methods

Todd Landman, University of Essex
8 - 19 July (two week course / 35 hrs)

Detailed Course Outline [PDF]

Course Content

This course provides students with an understanding of the different 'ways of knowing' in the social sciences and how to carry out systematic research using comparative methods. The course provides an epistemological continuum for locating different ways of researching social and political problems using quantitative and qualitative techniques. Students will learn about inductive and deductive approaches, large-N quantitative comparative analysis, small-N qualitative and quantitative comparative analysis, and single case studies using quantitative and qualitative analysis. The course is driven by a commitment to the evidence-inference methodological core of social science and how different research designs are linked to different comparative methods.

Course Objectives

Students will have the opportunity to gain knowledge of the evidence-inference methodological core of social science and how comparative methods play a part in drawing inferences about the social and political world.

Course Prerequisites

Students require an understanding and general familiarity with algebra and statistics, as well as the philosophy of science. The course is ideal for anyone embarking on a new research project or who is in the early stages of dissertation research at the MA and PhD level.

Representative Background Reading

Burkhart, R.E. and Lewis-Beck, M. (1994) ‘Comparative Democracy, the Economic Development Thesis’, American Political Science Review, 88(4):903–910.

Helliwell, J.F. (1994) ‘Empirical Linkages between Democracy and Economic Growth’, British Journal of Political Science, 24:225–248.

Kitschelt, H. (1986) ‘Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-nuclear Movements in Four Democracies’, British Journal of Political Science, 16 (January): 57–85.

Landman, T. (2002) ‘Comparative Politics and Human Rights', Human Rights Quarterly, 43(4): 890–923.

Lijphart, A. (1971) ‘Comparative Politics and Comparative Method’, The American Political Science Review, 65(3): 682–693.

Mahoney, J. and Goertz (2004) ‘The Possibility Principle: Choosing Negative Cases in Comparative Research,’ American Political Science Review, 98 (4): 653-669.

Required Reading

Landman, T. (2008) Issues and Methods in Comparattive Politics, 3rd Edition, Routledge.

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