A synoptic history and typology of experimental research in political science

This paper presents a brief chronicle of experimental research in political science. It is based upon an empirical analysis of 217 published experiments from ten major scholarly journals. A number of different subject areas where experimental designs have been employed are identified and dated as to when such designs were initially used. This sample of experiments is then analyzed, and four dimensions are identified and used to characterize these published experiments. The defining criteria for these dimensions include level of analysis, experimental environment, assumptions concerning rationality, and the nature of the experimental stimulus.