As a contribution to the Teaching & Learning Symposium on Comparative Politics organized by APSA, this short article discusses the challenges in Introduction to Comparative Politics classes when comparative political behavior is examined. In the tradition of studying political participation, the discipline has witnessed the development of…

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between psychological traits and voting behavior. Investigated is the thesis that psychological traits are useful concepts for political scientists as predictors of consistency in behavior. Contending that previous trait theory research has been generally unimpressive, the author…

The understanding of the political behavior of school boards can be advanced by conducting factor analysis of the voting records of trustees. While the application of these methods is generally appropriate, differences in subject matter highlight the problem of inferring political theory from numerical data. In this paper, several different…

This resource unit, developed by the University of Minnesota's Project Social Studies, introduces eighth graders to political parties and elections. Ways in which political scientists study voting behavior, sampling techniques, problems arising from interpreting findings, and the use of correlational studies are presented. The unit includes an…

This resource unit, developed by the University of Minnesota's Project Social Studies, introduces eighth graders to the legislative process. The unit uses case studies such as the Civil Rights Acts of 1960 and 1964 and attempts to change the Rules Committee in 1961. It also uses much data on background of congressmen and on distribution of…

The survey reviews recent research on political behavior in Japan and describes the nature and institutional setting of political science in Japan. Political science is regarded as a small academic discipline which is frequently an adjunct to another academic department within a university. Political scientists in Japan have exhibited less…