Journal ArticleDOI
Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics
TLDR
In a very crucial sense there is no methodology without logos, without thinking about thinking as mentioned in this paper, and if a firm distinction is drawn between methodology and technique, the latter is no substitute for the former.Abstract:
“To have mastered ‘theory’ and ‘method’ is to have become a conscious thinker, a man at work and aware of the assumptions and implications of whatever he is about. To be mastered by ‘method’ or ‘theory’ is simply to be kept from working.” The sentence applies nicely to the present plight of political science. The profession as a whole oscillates between two unsound extremes. At the one end a large majority of political scientists qualify as pure and simple unconscious thinkers. At the other end a sophisticated minority qualify as overconscious thinkers, in the sense that their standards of method and theory are drawn from the physical, “paradigmatic” sciences. The wide gap between the unconscious and the overconscious thinker is concealed by the growing sophistication of statistical and research techniques. Most of the literature introduced by the title “Methods” (in the social, behavioral or political sciences) actually deals with survey techniques and social statistics, and has little if anything to share with the crucial concern of “methodology,” which is a concern with the logical structure and procedure of scientific enquiry. In a very crucial sense there is no methodology without logos, without thinking about thinking. And if a firm distinction is drawn—as it should be—between methodology and technique, the latter is no substitute for the former. One may be a wonderful researcher and manipulator of data, and yet remain an unconscious thinker.read more
Citations
More filters
Book
Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences
TL;DR: In this paper, a text that emphasizes the importance of case studies in social science scholarship and shows how to make case study practices more rigorous is presented, with a focus on case studies.
Journal ArticleDOI
Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conceptualized path dependence as a social process grounded in a dynamic of increasing returns, and demonstrated that increasing returns processes are likely to be prevalent and that good analytical foundations exist for exploring their causes and consequences.
Journal ArticleDOI
Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method
TL;DR: This paper is a systematic analysis of the comparative method, and it is argued that the case study method is closely related to theComparison method.
Journal ArticleDOI
Still the Century of Corporatism
TL;DR: For instance, Manoilesco's confident prediction could easily be dismissed as yet another example of the ideological bias, wishful thinking and overinflated rhetoric of the thirties, an evenementielle response to a peculiar environment and period.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Political Economy of the Resource Curse
TL;DR: This paper reviewed a wide range of recent attempts in both economics and political science to explain the "resource curse" and found that much has been learned about the economic problems of resource exporters but less is known about their political problems.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method
TL;DR: This paper is a systematic analysis of the comparative method, and it is argued that the case study method is closely related to theComparison method.
Journal ArticleDOI
Causal Inferences in Nonexperimental Research
Alan Stuart,Hubert M. Blalock +1 more