The Craft of Political Research

Citation

Shively, W. P., & Endersby, J. W. (2025). The Craft of Political Research (11th ed.). Routledge.

Chapter Summary

The eleventh edition is a compact book of about 244 pages in eleven chapters. The publisher describes it as a nontechnical introduction to research design and analysis in political science, centred on the choices researchers make: ask an interesting question, then design the inquiry to eliminate as many alternative explanations as possible. Its stated emphasis is the "back story" of analysis, meaning why one measures a particular way, why one design is chosen over another and why the analysis is conducted as it is, and it works at a conceptual level rather than teaching software or computation. The chapter titles fall into three stages: framing a question and theory (Chapters 1-3), measurement (Chapters 4-5), and design and inference (Chapters 6-11).

Chapters 1-2: Doing Research; Political Theories and Research Topics

The opening chapters deal with what research involves and how theories and topics lead to a research question. The publisher's description poses the questions these chapters address: how a theory is developed and what makes a good research question.

Chapter 3: The Importance of Dimensional Thinking

A chapter on thinking about concepts in terms of dimensions. The description mentions multidimensional concepts among the topics students meet, and this is the chapter whose title points to that idea. The publisher also lists a new section on indexes and scales in this edition, on improving the reliability and validity of measures by combining several variables, though the contents do not say in which chapter it sits.

Chapters 4-5: Problems of Measurement: Accuracy; Problems of Measurement: Precision

Two chapters on measurement. The description lists validity, reliability, levels of measurement and random and non-random measurement error among the topics, and these two chapters are where the contents place measurement. The publisher also notes new sections on publicly available data, including downloadable sources of quantitative data.

Chapter 6: Causal Thinking

One of the two separate chapters that the publisher says were created in this edition, so that causality and research design each get their own treatment.

Chapter 7: The Design of Research

The second of those chapters. According to the description, the book covers experimental and quasi-experimental design, and the publisher presents design as the way to rule out alternative explanations.

Chapter 8: Selection of Observations for Study

How cases and observations are chosen. The description lists sampling and case selection among the topics.

Chapters 9-11: Introduction to Statistics: Measuring Relationship for Interval Data; Further Topics on Measurement of Relationships; Inference, or How to Gamble on Your Research

The statistics block. The description lists statistical inference and regression and correlation analysis, and the third chapter title ties inference to the risks of drawing conclusions from evidence. The publisher states that the emphasis throughout is on the logic of techniques and the reasons we choose them.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1-3: Questions, theory and concepts

• Research question: the book starts by asking what makes a question interesting.
• Dimensional thinking: treating concepts as having several dimensions, the subject of Chapter 3.
• Indexes and scales: combining variables to improve measurement, a new section in this edition.

Chapters 4-5: Measurement

• Accuracy and precision: the two measurement problems named in the chapter titles.
• Validity and reliability: the criteria the publisher lists for measures.
• Levels of measurement: a topic the publisher lists with the measurement material.

Chapters 6-8: Causation, design and case selection

• Causal thinking: Chapter 6.
• Research design: the means of eliminating alternative explanations.
• Experimental and quasi-experimental design: designs the description names.
• Case selection and sampling: how observations are chosen.

Chapters 9-11: Statistics

• Measuring relationships: correlation and regression for interval data.
• Statistical inference: moving from a sample to a conclusion about a larger population.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Conceptual rather than mechanical. The authors say they work at a conceptual level and focus on the reasoning behind techniques. This suits readers who need to understand why research is done a certain way before they learn software.
• Design is central. The organising idea, designing inquiry to eliminate alternative explanations, ties the chapters on theory, measurement, causation and design to the statistics chapters, which come last.
• Separate treatment of causality and design. The new edition gives each a chapter, which helps readers distinguish the question of what causes what from the question of how to study it.
• Short and international in its examples. At about 244 pages it can be read within a course, and the publisher says it includes examples from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Latin America and Africa with updated international data.

Limitations

• Not a hands-on statistics course. Statistics appears only in the last three chapters, and the publisher stresses concepts over computation. Students who need to run analyses will need a software guide or a quantitative methods text alongside it.
• Limited visible coverage of qualitative methods. The contents have no chapters on interviews, archival work or ethnography, though case selection and quasi-experimental design are mentioned. Courses with a qualitative component will need supplementary readings.
• Few published reviews. The publisher's page lists no reviews of this edition.

Where It Fits in the Course

Among the research methods books, this is a short, nontechnical starting point on how to design a study and reason about evidence. Kellstedt and Whitten's The Fundamentals of Political Science Research covers some of the same ground, theory, causation, research design and measurement, but then runs further into probability, hypothesis testing and multiple regression, so it is better for students who will do statistical analysis themselves. Halperin and Heath's Political Research: Methods and Practical Skills is a methods textbook that moves from the philosophy of social science to practical collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, and is suited to students planning their own project.

King, Keohane and Verba's Designing Social Inquiry makes the case that qualitative and quantitative research follow one logic of inference, and Gerring's Social Science Methodology is a graduate-level account that seeks common standards; both are for readers who already know the basics. Shepsle's Analyzing Politics introduces rational choice theory rather than research methods. Shively and Endersby's book is therefore a good first book before any of these.

How to Use This Book

The book is for undergraduates in an introductory political science methods course and for anyone who wants to read political research critically. The publisher presents it as a nontechnical introduction; it does not state specific prerequisites.

A practical plan:

• Chapters 1-2 first. Use them to draft a research question for a topic you care about.
• Core. Chapters 3-8 are the heart of the book: concepts, measurement, causal reasoning, design and case selection. Apply each to the question you drafted.
• Statistics. Chapters 9-11 are shorter on mechanics than a statistics text; read them for the logic of relationships and inference, and pair them with a statistics text or software guide if you will run analyses.
• Alongside the book. Take a published political science article and write a paragraph on how it defines its concepts, what alternative explanations it rules out and why it chose its cases. Check your reading against Chapters 4-8.