Must be taken in the first semester of studies. 202 Quantitative Methods for Political Managers Techniques of data analysis and the uses and abuses of statistical reasoning, with particular emphasis on applications to electoral campaigns, lobbying, and government relations. Topics include measurement, descriptive statistics, probability, and significance testing. Topics include significance testing, correlation, bivariate regression analysis, multivariate regression modeling, and factor analysis.
Students analyze data from actual political surveys.
PMgt 202 or 211. Topics include major factors influencing voter decisions, level of voter information and attentiveness to politics, and analysis of major models of demographic groupings that allow targeted campaign appeals. The specialized forms of communication that political professionals use to win public support for their candidates and policy positions. Major objectives of surveys, designing and drawing samples, constructing and pretesting questionnaires, modes of interviewing, financial implications, practical problems in selecting and monitoring polling organizations, and interpretation of survey data. Formulation of strategies for getting favorable news coverage for the issue or candidate and for ending a media crisis.