Knowing that political scientists value objectivity may help you in making decisions about how and what to write in your paper. Political theory is an important exception to this empirical approach. Since theory-building serves as the cornerstone of the discipline, it may be useful to see how it works. You too may be wrestling with theories or proposing your own as you write your paper. Consider how political scientists have arrived at the theories you are reading and discussing in your course.
Most political scientists adhere to a simple model of scientific inquiry when building theories.
The key to building precise and persuasive theories is to develop and test hypotheses. Hypotheses are statements that researchers construct for the purpose of testing whether or not a certain relationship exists between two phenomena. To see how political scientists use hypotheses, and to imagine how you might use a hypothesis to develop a thesis for your paper, consider the following example. Suppose that we want to know if presidential elections are affected by economic conditions. You could test the relationship between the independent and dependent variables by collecting data on unemployment rates and the reelection of incumbent presidents and comparing the two sets of information.