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Chapter 4 — The Scientific Enterprise Study Chapter Summary The guiding question in this chapter is: To
what extent and how best can scientific method be used to better understand
politics? This question came to the forefront as a result of the behavioral revolution in the social sciences, a post-World War II movement
to apply scientific
method to the study of complex human
behavior. For the advocates of this movement, the quest for knowledge about
human behavior--including political behavior--must be more systematic, more
objective, more reliant on quantifiable data, and more scientific than it has
been traditionally. This more systematic search for knowledge
about the political world uses some common scientific methods: (1) the
objective identification of a problem to be investigated, (2) the shaping of an
initial hypothesis, a tentative assertion usually attempting to explain
a cause and effect, to guide the investigation, (3) the obtaining and
organizing of data to test the hypothesis, and (4) testing and retesting to validate the hypothesis. There are both strengths and weaknesses
to the scientific enterprise as it is applied to the world of politics. As for
strengths, the scientific method can be extraordinarily useful in defining a
problem, framing a testable hypothesis, marshalling empirical data beyond hunch
and opinion, and, ultimately, in validating a hypothesis. The scientific method
facilitates problem solving and helps the student of politics to be more
directed, more economical, more logical, and more searching. There are, however, weaknesses to the
scientific enterprise. Not all political problems lend themselves to scientific
inquiry. There is also the danger of “hyperfactualism,” the process of
collecting data for its own sake. There is the danger of sterile theoretical
speculation, of spinning grand empirical theories divorced from reality. There
is the danger of becoming excessively fascinated with a new empirical research
tool and misapplying it to the study of a political problem. There is the
danger of becoming so enamored of scientific method that we become focused on
the present and the past as opposed to the future. There is certainly the
danger of ignoring the gap between an ethical ideal and political reality. Chapter Objectives After reading this chapter, you should
have...
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