Sections offered FALL 2023:
#36121 |
WILLIAM BIANCO |
TuTh 9:45 AM–11:00 AM |
WH 121 |
CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd N&M credit – Natural Science; COLL (CASE) N&M Breadth of Inquiry credit
The central question of this class is, “how can we use data to make sense of politics?” For example, what do polls tell us about public opinion, which candidates are likely to win the next election, or whether American democracy is backsliding? Can we predict something as complex as human behavior, either individual choices or actions taken by groups? Is political science really a “science?”
This course focuses on how to answer these questions. We will start with understanding how political scientists (and other social scientists) develop theories and frame research questions. We will then discuss what the appropriate standards of evidence are for analyzing political phenomena. The bulk of the semester will be hands-on: fabricating hypotheses, building datasets, analyzing them, and drawing conclusions.
The underlying motivation for this course stems from two clear trends across society. On the one hand, technological changes have vastly increased our ability to collect data describing virtually any aspect of human behavior. However, the supply of people who can use data to generate actionable analyses remains small. Without data skills, you are at the mercy of people who have these skills. Plus, the data scientists should not have all the fun. Thus, my goal is to introduce you to data analysis, focusing on the “why” rather than the “how.”
This course is designed for students who are interested in contemporary American politics. We will not spend much time talking about what should happen – who we want to win the next election or what policies we want government to follow. Rather, our goal is to use data to describe what’s happening and understand the forces that drive political outcomes.
There are no prerequisites for the class, other than a curiosity about politics and an interest in working with data. You don’t need to be a calculus-genius or know how to code in Python.
The course readings will include a series of research papers and tutorials. You’ll have weekly assignments as well as a series of group projects.