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The lecture provides an overview of the epistemological and methodological basis of empirical social research, with applications mostly taken from political science. An emphasis is placed on the logic of social inquiry, research design, and recurrent methodological issues, such as causality. These topics are addressed in ways that apply to both qualitative and quantitative research.

The course Methods and Techniques of Political Science provides students with an introduction to key methodological principles, concepts in empirical research, research design in political and social science, descriptive statistics and causal inference as well as concreat examples of applied studies. The main purpose of the course is to teach how to frame research and use different scientific methods in political inquiry.
Practical guidance for anyone interested in empirical political studies enables students to approach their own research agenda. Namely, students will learn how to describe political phenomena, identify research questions in the field, suggest research design, select evidences for hypothesis testing, perform data analysis and present the main findings and answers to the initial questions.

The course of lectures discusses both the purpose of research in political science and the entire circle of this research. There are four main streams in the course. The first four lectures introduce methodological principles of scientific research, the key concepts, basic principles and main theoretical approaches to empirical research. Subsequent five lectures deal with research designs and data collection. This stream describes how to identify proper research design for certain types of research questions and how to collect data. Third stream focuses on empirical data analysis: one lecture discusses qualitative and two quantitative data analysis. The concluding session sums up the main points of the course, presents a short overview of what was discussed and suggests proposals for academic writing and research.

Students acquire a basic understanding of the logic of empirical research in the social scienes, study designs, and of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting empirical evidence.

Successful completion of the course requires performing three types of educational activities conventional at the University: careful reading, attendance and timely submission of home assignments. If you consistently complete these tasks, then by the end of the course you will learn:
1. The entire framework of research in Political Science.
2. The main concepts and methods in Political Science.
3. The way how to frame research questions and develop hypotheses.
4. A variety and use of possible research designs.
5. Ways how to select an appropriate research design to answer a specific research question.
6. Data analysis of qualitative and quantitative data.
7. Interpretation of data.
8. Ability to communicate the results of the research.

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