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Department of Political Science

Professorship for Political Methodology

Methods Start

Director of the area

Marco Steenbergen

Prof. Dr. Marco Steenbergen
 

Teaching and supervision

Science is method. Accordingly, methodological competence is one of the most important skills a student can acquire. The ability to understand, use and teach methods provides a strong competitive advantage in today's job market, both inside and outside the academy. A solid methodological education means that students understand both qualitative and quantitative methods. It also means that students acquire a solid and fundamental understanding that prepares them for a lifetime of methodological learning. Therefore, the key philosophy of the Chair in Political Methodology is to teach students how to think about research, data and scientific inference. This means going beyond cookbook recipes and a point-and-click approach to analysis. Instead, students learn how scientific inference is done, with a particular focus on (model) identification and estimation.

Methods:

We encounter statistics every day. Understanding statistics, being able to apply them yourself and working with data is becoming increasingly important in many professional fields. When we ask alumni which skills they acquired during their studies have proven particularly useful in their professional activities, they often refer to methodological training and analytical work.

«In general, dealing with sources is very important, e.g. understanding scientific publications. You should be able to understand what has been worked out there, for example, quantitatively - journalists often have trouble with that - with the method training you can judge whether a study is meaningful or not.»
Adrienne Fichter, Editor Media Magazine Republik

The IPZ is the only institute in Switzerland with its own chair for methods in political science. I Methods training is a central and integrative component of the entire political science curriculum. In the first three semesters of the bachelor's program, our students deal with the logic of research and learn the basics and application references of quantitative methods. In the fourth semester, they expand and deepen their methodological knowledge by studying qualitative methods In the master's program, too, attendance at two specific modules allows students to delve deeper into methods of empirical research. In the political science curriculum of the IPZ, much emphasis is also placed on applying the acquired methodological knowledge in the elective and optional modules provided for this purpose.

Courses:

Bachelor

  • Introduction to Methods in Political Science (HS)
  • Applied Methods in Political Science (HS/FS)
  • Introduction to Political Psychology (FS)

Master

  • Advanced Methods I (HS)
  • Advanced Methods II (FS)
  • Advanced Statistical Models in Political Analysis using R (HS)
  • Data Visualization (HS)
  • Understanding Polls (HS)
  • Big Data and Statistical Learning (FS)
  • Web Development (FS)

PhD

  • Research Design and Causal Inference (HS)
  • Data Visualization (HS)
  • Intro to quant. Methods (HS)


You can find detailed information about the courses of the staff members on the personal pages.
 

Support information

Consultation hours:

Prof. Dr. Marco Steenbergen
Monday 13.00-15.00, Office AFL-H-335
(without appointment)
Other appointments by appointment

Dr. Benjamin Schlegel / R Helpdesk.
R-Help office hours are open to anyone with any relationship to the IPZ (BA/MA students, etc.) to ask any and all possible and impossible questions about data analysis with R. R-Help office hours are held in FS25 on Wednesday, 1:00-3:00pm in AFL H-343. No registration is necessary.

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