A Normative Turn in Political Science? (original) (raw)
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A Normative Turn in Political Science? &ast
Polity, 2006
Traditionally, the scientific study of politics has been associated with a value-neutral approach to the subject. One seeks to uncover what is, not what ought to be, in the political realm. This is what distinguishes a" positive" science from opinionizing, social engineering, or political philosophy. In recent decades, one detects a growing uneasiness with the venerable fact/value dichotomy, at least as it was traditionally understood. It is not clear, however, where this leaves us.(Is the fact/value dichotomy dead?) Against this backdrop, ...
The relevance of political science and the public responsibility of political scientists
2020
The relevance of political science and the public responsibility of political scientists Political scientists face increasing demands to demonstrate the relevance of their research beyond the academy (the so-called 'impact agenda'). Matthew Flinders argues that this should be seen less a threat to the discipline's autonomy than an opportunity to rise to public responsibilities that have always accompanied a political science career. The 'noble science of politics' has changed a great deal through the 20th and 21st centuries. It has also rather (in)famously been 'a discipline divided', with tensions between warring factions and sub-fields too often dominating discussions, to the detriment of complementarity and pluralism. The 'tragedy of political science' is that it has spent too much time and energy fighting internal schisms and too little nurturing its position within the broader social context. This assertion might be challenged by some as a generalisation, yet the lively debates in the past two decades, prompted by books on the relevance of political science and making political science matter, suggest that the problem still persists. We are still waiting for 'punk political science' to explode onto the scene The 'raucous rebellion' in political science occasioned by the Perestroikan movement never actually seemed that raucous, and appeared more concerned with increasing methodological pluralism within the discipline than forging a new political science for the twenty-first century. We are still waiting for 'punk political science' to explode onto the scene.
Swiss Political Science Review, 2024
This debate aims at discussing the broader social relevance of political science research, a debate that has not yet taken place in Switzerland although it has been ongoing internationally. In this introduction, we highlight the main questions raised by the debate and illustrate the various contributions. With this debate we hope to stimulate further contributions on the topic in the future.
The Political Applicability of Political Science Research
Das Scriber Interdisciplinary Research and Development, 2021
This article sought to provide political scientists perspective into how an independent yet productive relationship with political practice may be maintained. To this end, I propose three phases about how political science has to do with political practice, each of which offers a distinct picture of how issues may and should be addressed, how these problems are conceptualized and how they might be investigated. Finally, these disparities depend on their perspectives on the relationship between declarations of political worth and empirical assertions.
Arguing for the Philosophy of Political Science
While there are many working scientists who engage in things like theory building and empirical testing, there has also been a group of scientists who sought to better understand the philosophy behind science. This philosophical study of science as a project is referred to as the philosophy of science and there are different sub-fields for each of the natural and social sciences, except for political science. This lack of an explicit sub-field dedicated to reflecting on our philosophy of science, i.e., our beliefs, values, methods, etc., has caused this knowledge to become tacit within our community. Because the knowledge of our philosophy of science is now tacit, we as a community are hindered in our capacity to engage in critical self-reflection which is an important part of any scientific endeavor. However, what has been is not what need be moving forward, we can still turn this tacit knowledge into formal knowledge which will then allow us to grow as a community. This thesis wil...
Can Political Science Emulate the Natural Sciences? The Problem of Self-Disconfirming Analysis
American political science has long aspired to emulate both the objective research methods of the natural sciences and their practical successes in controlling their objects of study. Regrettably, the putative tension between these two ambitions is rarely discussed. This essay seeks to touch off such a discussion by illuminating a significant problem that produces tension between objective knowledge accumulation and practical control of politics, but not of nature: self-disconfirming analysis. The problem is that in some situations, successful realization of the normative implications of political analysis may create new political patterns that are no longer consistent with the law-like regularities uncovered by that analysis. I demonstrate how this problem is manifest in the work of Robert Putnam, whose career exhibits a commitment to (naturalistic) scientific rigor as well as a passion for sociopolitical change. If the agenda implied by Putnam's scientific research were to be implemented, some of the causal claims established by that research would be removed from actual operation. I argue that the failure of political science to realize its naturalistic aspirations is at least partly attributable to this problem.