Introduction to Political Analytics

Analytics and data-driven decision-making are playing an ever-larger role in modern political campaigns, advocacy groups, and media coverage of politics. This phenomenon builds on the increasing availability of “big data” in politics: augmented voter files covering hundreds of millions of registered voters, databases of donors and volunteers, online clicks and likes, an explosion of polling options, and much more. As a result, data practitioners now play a key role in determining the direction of American politics.

This course familiarizes students with a range of foundational statistical and data analytic methods and shows how these techniques can be practically applied to politics and related fields. The course also serves as an intensive introduction to statistical programming in R. Students will learn about the role of big data and analytics in contemporary US politics, with a focus on key data sources and their uses. The course also focuses on causal inference methods to train students in evaluating the impact of political campaigns, policy initiatives, and other program interventions. This course lays the groundwork for more specialized courses and will help students consider which types of knowledge and skills they want to acquire as they progress through the degree program.