In order to venture into explanations of political action we need a map of our basic options: what types of examinations are out there? Even advanced students and scholars can find the landscape difficult to navigate. They confront a bewildering maze of partial typologies, contrasting uses of terms, and debates over what counts as an explanation.
How to Map Arguments in Political Science provides a basic map and toolkit for analysis in political science that references political examples and a wide range of material from the political science literature. While common terms--structural, institutional, ideational, and psychological logics--form the sectors of the map, this book is unique in its arguments regarding how to best define these terms. Adopting a systematic and exhaustive framework, it defines the main analytical approaches in ways that facilitate both competition and combination. Finally, it leads to revisions of prevailing views on philosophy of science and research design to encourage more open and rigorous debates.

About the Author

Craig Parsons is interested in the ideas and institutions that came together to construct today's Europe. His first book, "A Certain Idea of Europe" (Cornell University Press, 2003), focused on how certain political principles out-battled others in the construction of the European Union. He has also led three edited-book projects, respectively on EU politics (Oxford University Press, 2005), immigration in Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2006), and "constructivist" political economy (under review). His next major research project will move further back in history to trace ideas about democracy in Britain, France, and Germany in the 19th and early 20th centuries, under the title, "The Cultural Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy."

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