Field experiments for the study of institutions in political science

From a paper by Christian R. Grose where he explains why scholars of institutions in political science have not as frequently embraced field experiments. He also offers ideas of potential areas of application:

Principal-agent relationships can be tested using field experiments, particularly by using bureaucrats as subjects. Decades ago, Simon (1965, 34) stated that “field experiments have not been an important procedure for learning about organizational decision making.” Today, this claim could still be made even though there is much that could be learned by employing field experiments.

It was published in the Annual Review of Political Science (Feb., 2014). 

Socratic Method and Political Science

This article advances a novel theoretical account of what a “method” is and what makes one “rigorous,” and shows how it could advance contemporary debates in political theory and empirical methodology. Plato's Socrates invented the notion of method, and his characteristic practice of immanent refutation through questioning escapes key problems in more familiar views. Socratic method is (1) antifoundational, (2) non-algorithmic, and (3) indirect and relative to competing hypotheses, and it (4) develops its own standards of objectivity from the logic of asking questions. The article reconstructs Socrates’ method from the Platonic texts and shows how it provides reasonable criteria for judgment while remaining critical, sensitive to difference, and open to innovation. Socratic method avoids a forced choice between universalism and particularism in political theory, and it provides a common language for evaluating both quantitative and qualitative methods by drawing out a critical logic of empirical inquiry shared by both.

Woow, I wish I had the full article for you, the author is Christopher Meckstroth. Source.