1. WHAT KIND OF QUESTIONS TO POLITICAL SCIENTISTS ASK AND ANSWER?
We mostly focus on empirical questions, which raises the question of whether normative questions, ok? (what is political theory and one way that political science can be applied research is to do work that has obvious normative implications)
What’s the difference between social sciences, much of anthropology/history, and the humanities? Where does INR fit?
Why don’t we do much really new stuff (vs. say anthropology)? Most work seeks to make incremental improvements and is linked into an existing research path (efficiency and training, hiring and “disciplines,” publishing incentives, the research article format as an “institution”).
Is everything in political science about quantifiable evidence? Who does qualitative research?
Why is most social science about cause and effect? (either explaining or predicting)?
Do we need to focus on obviously useful information? “basic” (aka pure or theoretical), academic, and applied research
Why do we go for maximized generalization without “concept stretching”?

2. EXAMPES OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What did you come up with?
Some of the recurring big political science questions:
Who are the winners and losers in politics? In IR, why do some states become so powerful, how do they replicate hegemony, and why does hegemony become unstable?
In American and comparative politics: Why has income inequality become greater over the last several decades?
Comparative and INR: How has the “Washington consensus” and international organizations impacted ideology about growth?
Does lower turnout equate to less generous redistributive policy?
What role does campaign finance and lobbying play in causing politicians to ignore policies and outcomes that hurt most of their voters?

3. EXAMPES OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Who votes and who doesn’t?
Subnational research: Why does the US have such low turnout?
How do things like the structure of an electoral system (e.g., PR vs. SMD), how competitive districts are, how often elections are, and voter registration rules impact who votes?
How is the decline in parties impacting voting? Which voters?
Human Rights: Is it enough to just build and deepen political democracy?
Judicial politics?
Do SC judges personal ideologies impact later decisions?
Who is most/less likely to change their views to align with an SC decision
What is the most effective way to get Congress to interact in your favor with the bureaucracy and why? Lobbying (yes), $ (no)
What is the effect of negative advertising on voting?
How does the way that we talk about US foreign policy increase or decrease support for it (the efficacy of emphasizing sunk costs and sacrifice already made)

4. WHAT DO GOOD RESEARCH PROJECTS HAVE IN COMMON?
They make a contribution, so that we learn more over time.
Academic research is almost always centered on puzzles:
Seemingly very different situations, same outcomes
Shared situation or stimulus different outcomes
Look for anomalies:
Explaining cases where political science has reached a seemingly illogical conclusion
Cases where an accepted theory doesn’t hold can help us to modify a theory
Select a question where you don’t like the answer that someone else has given because:
They were plain wrong (replication studies; or missing variable bias)
They were right but they forgot important things
They probably were right, but things have changed
She is right about x; he is right about y, What about xy?