中美政治学研究方法之比较

American Political Science and Chinese Political Science——A Comparison of Methodology

无论是在中国还是在美国,政治学都是一个很大的学科,但是两国政治学在研究方法上却有着很大差别。作者以《美国政治学评论》为例,首先描述了美国政治学研究方法在20世纪的重大变化:由定性分析占绝对优势转为定量分析占主导地位。同时,作者简单回顾了定性分析从90年代中期以来的复兴以及试验方法逐渐被美国政治学者所接受的过程。接下来,作者以中国政治学的四本学术期刊为例,描述了当今中国政治学的研究方法。作者发现,与美国政治学相反,中国政治学研究方法以定性分析为主。文章最后分析了造成两国政治学研究方法差异的主要原因。

Political science is a major discipline in both the U.S. and China, but the methodological approaches in the two countries cannot be more different. We first use the American Political Science Review to illustrate the methodological transformation in American political science in the 20th century, that is, the decline of qualitative methods and the rise of quantitative methods. The resurgence of qualitative methods since the mid-1990s and the increasing use of experimental methods are also discussed. Then we examine four Chinese political science journals. We find that qualitative methods dominate Chinese political science. We conclude by discussing the major causes for the methodological differences in political science between the two countries.