ABSTRACT
Two major methodological positions guide political science researchers: the positivist or behavioralist approach, and the postpositivist or interpretist approach. The positivist approach is usually referred to as quantitative research; the postpositivist approach is referred to as qualitative research. The postpositivist approach is also sometimes referred to as realist, hermeneutic, or narrative research. The positivist and postpositivist approaches are the chief methodological approaches that political scientists follow to gain knowledge about the political world (Oakley 2000; Marsh, Stoker, and Furlong 2002). Each will be described in somewhat greater detail in the following pages.
