This book offers a comprehensive inroduction to research methods and statistics for students of political science. Clearly organized and accessibly written around three parts, the text introduces the main theories and methodologies used across the social sciences in understanding and doing comparative political research. „h Part 1 broadly frames the comparative approach within that of the political and social sciences. The importance of the relationship between theory and method to empirical analytical research, and the crucial steps in generating and implementing a genuinely comparative research design are carefully outlined. „h Part 2 introduces both basic descriptive and inferential statistical methods, as well as more advanced multivariate methods used in quantitative political analysis and applied to examples taken from comparative studies. „h Part 3 demonstrates the application of the methods and techniques of the previous two parts to a number of research questions drawn from contemporary themes and issues in political science. Incorporating summary questions, practice exercises, glossaries and further reading sections throughout, this book provides and invaluable step-by-step guide to the research process in the political and social sciences. It will be an essential resource for all students and researchers in political science, comparative politics and sociology.