Aims and structure of this course
What is the responsibility of a social scientist? Are there clear rules for ethical conduct in research? Can a political scientist or scholar of public administration ever be truly neutral? Are policy evaluations based on objective criteria, or are they inevitably shaped by values? And when studying politically or morally charged topics, is controversy unavoidable?

Though these questions vary, they share a common thread: they challenge researchers in ways that theory, methodology, and data alone cannot resolve. At their core, these are normative questions—questions about values, ethics, and the responsibilities that come with conducting research in general, and in political science and public administration in particular.

Like any complex social practice, scientific inquiry carries its own ethical dilemmas. These can be divided into two key—presumably intersecting—dimensions:

• Internal integrity—the ethics of conducting research itself. For example, should researchers always share their data? Where is the line between pragmatic methodological choices and sloppy science?
• External responsibility—the role of the researcher in society. Should research and policy advice be as value-free as possible? Do social scientists have a duty to ‘speak truth to power’?

This course does not deal with specific theories or particular methodologies of political science and public administration – nor with philosophy of science and epistemology – but with the values and ethics involved in the practice of research.

By the end of this course, PhD students will be able to:

• Recognize and analyze ethical dilemmas in research – Identify key issues of scientific integrity, value conflict, and societal responsibility in the practice of political and administrative research;
• Critically evaluate the role of values in social science – Assess the implications of the fact-value distinction, scientific autonomy, and normative commitments in research and policy advice;
• Engage in informed discussions on scientific responsibility – Reflect on and debate classical and contemporary perspectives on the ethical responsibilities of social scientists, both within academia and in society;
• Apply ethical reflection to their own research – Recognize implicit value choices in their own work and develop a well-reasoned position on their role as researchers in politically and morally charged contexts.