1 Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research Ideas and Politics Daniel Béland and Robert Henry Cox Across the social sciences, ideas are increasingly recognized as major factors in politics. One could go so far as to say that, as we do in this volume, ideas are a primary source of political behavior. Our contention here is that ideas shape how we understand political problems, give definition to our goals and strategies, and are the currency we use to communicate about politics. By giving definition to our values and preferences, ideas provide us with interpretive frameworks that make us see some facts as important and others as less so. In turn, this has serious consequences for how we understand the role of interests in politics. Instead of seeing politics as the contest among people who have clear and stable interests and develop strategies to pursue them, this volume develops a vision of politics as the struggle for power and control among people who are motivated by a myriad of ideas. These might include their perceived interests, but also their ideals, their pride, their fears, and so on. In addition, the ideas people share in their communications with those around them inform not only their belief in what they want, but what they deem to be appropriate, legitimate, and proper. What, then, are ideas? Despite the attention to the subject, there seems to be ambiguity and disagreement about basic definitions. For us, ideas are causal beliefs. This simple definition involves many discrete dimensions. First, as beliefs, ideas are products of cognition. They are produced in our minds, and are connected to the material world only via our interpretations of our surroundings. Our minds can create ideas from any of a multitude of sensory perceptions, or the mind can create ideas based on no connection to reality at all. How else could we know and believe in things we cannot see or touch? Second, as causal beliefs, ideas posit connections