Developed for courses in Research Methods and/or Introduction to Political Science, this reader presents a readily accessible, systematic approach to politics and its principles, around which political inquiry should be organized. Readers are exposed to materials on the fundamental assumptions of political inquiry in addition to the specific devices necessary for gathering and collecting data. Methods for Political Inquiry represents the only text currently available that incorporates both normative and empirical theory building, as well as qualitative and quantitative research methods, to emphasize why researchers might use one technique over another.