ABSTRACT
This chapter looks closely at the nature of political theories and at the factors that influence the decision to do research on a particular theory. A causal theory always includes some phenomenon that is to be explained for, the dependent variable. A causal theory also includes one or more factors that are thought to affect the dependent variable, the independent variables. The choice of a research topic is intimately bound up with the elegance of what comes out of the research effort. Choosing a topic that will produce important results for theory is more difficult than formulating a question that may yield important practical applications. Choosing a topic is not something for which rules can be laid down. One way to look at choosing topics and developing theories is to realize that they are at heart very commonsensical processes, based on our daily experiences. The chapter discusses what is involved in working with theories and developing a research question.
