Publishing in French Political Science Journals: an Inventory of Methods and Sub-fields
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Data, Measures and Methods
Publishing in French Political Science Journals: an Inventory of Methods and Sub-fields Libia Billordo Department of Political Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4880, USA. E-mails: [email protected], [email protected]
French Politics (2005) 3, 178–186. doi:10.1057/palgrave.fp.8200075
Introduction In this essay, we undertake an inventory of the published articles in French political science journals since 1970, focusing on methodological preferences and sub-field coverage. Such an approach has been used to map the development of political science and its sub-fields in the United States. Thus, Prentice Hull (1999) addressed the evolution of comparative politics by systematically surveying the range and content of journal articles in the subfield. Bennett et al. (2003) conducted a systematic review of the diversity of theories and methods in American Political Science journal articles as well as a survey of Political Science Department courses on methodology, in order to make inferences about the nature of the discipline as a whole. Keeler (2005) has mapped the evolution of European Union studies in the United States, using data drawn from several leading journals and dissertations published at major American universities. In this study, we have reviewed all articles published in two major French journals: Revue Franc¸aise de Science Politique (RFSP) and Politix.1 Looking at these journals will allow us to have an empirical basis against which to evaluate trends in the political science in France in terms of the use of methods as well as sub-disciplinary emphasis. After a brief discussion of our methodology and coding procedures, we will analyze (a) the use of quantitative vs qualitative methods in each journal, and (b) coverage by sub-field. In the latter part of the essay, we will compare the evolution of French Political Science with that in the United States using the data collected by Bennett et al. (2003).
Method and Coding Procedures French political science remains somewhat elusive to outsiders. While the language barrier is the first ready explanation, Andy Smith (1999) reminds
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us that there is something else beyond the language question that renders French political science ‘a mystery’ to the Anglo-Saxon world. He explains that, despite the traffic of ideas as well as scholars themselves, there still remains very little work by French researchers published in Britain (and vice versa). While specifically referring to the case of public policy, Smith (1999) argues that the fundamental problem is epistemological in nature; that is, the different ways in which problems, methods and data interpretation are conceived in the two academic communities. The difference in perception of such questions is in large part due to the different history and traditions of the field, in France deeply rooted in sociology, law and history (Lequesne, 1994). Nevertheless, books as well as journals perm
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