Psephology
 

The "science" of PSEPHOLOGY is fast gaining "ground" across the globe. After over twenty years of research experience I'm interested in enhancing my knowledge base. Can anybody suggest how one can "earn" a degree / diploma in Psephology. Needless to mention, this has to be completed "online".
Thanx

Pardon my ignorance... ssraha, can you explain what is "Psephology"?

Definition of Psephology
 

Thanx Mario
 

But.................................any possible "leads" for achieving my stated purpose ?? Can we discuss various methods / theories / models etc. which in turn could help evolve this new "science" ?

In doing a quick search for colleges that offer degrees in Psephology, it seems to me that it's like going to a baseball game and asking "where are the keys to the batter's box?" or "go ask the manager where he keeps his box of foul balls". Wild goose chase.

Anyone who has done any kind of polling of the electorate has pretty much 'earned their degree' in Psephology. First use of tabulation was census, I suspect that election results was second.

I'm all for discussing how people deal with election night results. I find it very interesting to compare Exit Polls with actual election counts.

I've never seen a degree in political polling. My best advice would be to get a good market research background, read the relevant journals related to polling, and then get hands-on experience with a pollster. I vote for the school of hard knocks!!!

And so humanity moves along.

A degree in election polls!
What will they invent next? Degree in the formulation of closed-ended questions? Degree in entering the letter "A" into electronic devices (mouseclick, touch-tone phone, keyboard, etc.)?

I don't know about earning a degree in this subject, but I can point you to one of the most seasoned practitioners. Contact Joe Lenski at Edison Media Research http://www.edisonresearch.com/index.html. Edison is the organization that conducts all of the election exit polling for the major news organizations in the U.S.

Quantitative Analysis of Electoral Behavior/Electoral Systems
 

Prior to the introduction of powerful computers to the university, the study of electoral systems and behavior was an occassional addendum to the study of political philosophy. Policy analysis was purely a normative exercise. Some institutions retain this qualitative approach, but the old guard is dying off. Most modern graduate level study of political science covers the subdiscipline of psephology. The University of Michigan, home of the ICPSR and NES data sets, is among the top programs. Rice University in Houston and Stanford University in Palo Alto are also well known for their empirical approach to the science of politics.

Thanx jreish and Philip
 

I will definitely "explore" the possiblities that you have kindly given the "connections" to. However since the world is fast "moving" towards more of democracy (courtesy the Western "hegemony" !!) I am surprised that not too many people at "our" website find this topic exiciting enough, to have a fairly "involved" discussion. I refer to one of the responses that I have received so far......................the person seems to have forgotten what I conveyed initially............I have over twenty five years experience in research and this person has the "cheek" of responding stupidly about etc. etc..........read his / her response and you may understand what I am trying to convey............in any case it would be ridiculous talking about what he / she has outlined. Scott spends a considerable of time trying to make this the premier research dialogue "space" and then, people have stupid responses like etc. etc.. Psephology is something only research professionals like us can "evolve".............provides an "exciting" research possibility SIMPLY because our research minds (with a exception of a few "casual" and fairly insipid minds) must take this as a challenge to be able to provide "creditable" psephologists..............fancy term to use but, WHY NOT EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITIES of providing solutions ???????????.................. If one of the premier Research sites in this "seamless" world of ours cannot put their minds together then unfortunately, Marketing Research will never evolve !

can u suggest some good books on psephology/ and their availabilityin india

Surely where there is an industry, there'll be specializations. Look at all the "services" and software that have been created to help people monetize Google AdWords, for example. Or local merchants who help people sell on eBay. You might just see colleges offering SEO coursework as part of a specialization in online marketing.