What are the common challenges that researchers face when designing and performing research? What are the choices and trade-offs that social scientists encounter when seeking to implement a fascinating idea? This volume brings together world-leading scholars from a range of political research methodologies and sub-areas in order to show how they have dealt with these challenges during the research process. Looking at every stage of the research process, Political Science Research Methods in Action showcases common problems that affect diverse research approaches and shows how they were encountered and resolved. Aiming to help researchers - whether new or experienced - to take control of their research, this volume brings the research process to life and shows how actual research is 'done' within the frameworks of core methodological principles that guide research design.

This book presents the results of a new comparative research project on the trajectories, motivations, perceptions and attitudes of young members (aged 18-25) of 15 different European political parties in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Norway and Hungary. The project combined a mass survey of 2919 young party members with 517 in-depth interviews.

"Citizens of Europe?" looks at the emergence of a new mass European identity, and at the way symbols of European integration and the mass media have shaped and influenced it. It provides new and unprecedented empirical evidence on the progress of European identity in a comparative perspective between the 1970's and today, but also in depth quantitative evidence on the effects of symbols of Europe and the media on citizens' identity in Britain, France, and the Netherlands, and qualitative evidence based on focus groups on what Europe means to citizens.

An explanation of variations in the discourses and electoral success of 25 extreme right parties across 17 European political systems. The book shows how the European extreme right is mapped by the positions of parties and voters on two ideological dimensions, and how the match between these determines electoral success.

Through accounts from innovative research projects by world-leading political scientists, this volume offers a unique perspective on research methodology. It discusses the practical and intellectual dilemmas researchers face throughout the research process in a wide range of fields from implicit attitude testing to media analysis and interviews.

An explanation of variations in the discourses and electoral success of 25 extreme right parties across 17 European political systems. The book shows how the European extreme right is mapped by the positions of parties and voters on two ideological dimensions, and how the match between these determines electoral success.

This book shows empirically for the first time how a mass European identity has emerged across the EU member states between 1970 and the present day. Beyond this novel approach, it also offers a whole new theory of political identities, based on two 'civic' and 'cultural' components. Michael Bruter shows how multiple identities reinforce - rather than exclude - each other, and studies in depth the unsuspected impact of the media and political institutions on the emergence of new political identities.