The Role of Theory in the Discipline of Politics by Renske Doorenspleet

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The Role of Theoryin the Discipline of
Politicsby Renske Doorenspleet
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Contents of this lecture

• (A) What is a theory?
• (B) What is a hypothesis?
• (C) What is a concept and a variable?
• (D) What are good theories?
• (E) Finally

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(A) What is a theory?

• ESSENTIAL part of research process

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(A) What is a theory?

• A theory is like a kaleidoscope
• A tube, a number of lenses and
• fragments of coloured glass.
• When you turn the tube,
• the shapes and colours change.
• Different lenses come into play and
• the combinations of colour and
• shape shift from one pattern to
• another.
• (from OBrien 1993)

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(A) What is a theory?

• Kaleidoscope? ? maybe more a paradigm
• an overall framework
• for looking at the reality

• Positivism
• Structural functionalism,
• Feminism
• Etc.

(see Silverman 2005 Ch. 7 Babbie 2006 Ch 2)
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(A) What is a theory?

• A theory is a systematic explanation for
  observations that relate to a particular aspect
  of life (Babbie 2006 Ch. 2)
• A theory is a set of concepts used to define
  and/or explain some phenomenon (Silverman 2005
  Ch. 7)
• Examples theories of revolutions, poverty, war ,
  terrorism, social class, political leadership,
  voting behaviour

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(A) What is a theory?

• Functions of theories
• Framework
• Guide
• Explanation of empirical observations
• Systematize
• New ideas
• Debate, exchange of knowledge

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(A) What is a theory?

• Types of theories
• Normative theories theories about how the world
  should be. Focused on thinking about ideal world.
  
• Empirical theories theories about how the world
  actually is . Focused on describing and
  explaining political processes and events

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(A) What is a theory?
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(A) What is a theory?
A concrete example Lipsets explanation for
democracy
Lipsets research question Why are some
countries democratic and other countries not?

• Theoretical idea Only in a wealthy society can a
  situation exist in
• which the mass of the population could
  intelligently participate in
• politics and could develop the self-restraint
  necessary to avoid
• succumbing to the appeals of irresponsible
  demagogues. A society
• divided between a large impoverished mass and a
  small favored
• elite would result either in oligarchy (...) or
  in tyranny
• (Lipset 1959 75).

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(A) What is a theory?

• Several explanations for democracy
• Modernization theories
• (Lerner 1958 Lipset 1959)
• Dependency theories(Frank 1967 Amin 1976
  Cardoso 1973)
• World-system theories (Wallerstein 1979)
• Historical structural theories(Moore 1966
  Rueschemeyer et al. 1992)
• Actor-oriented approaches(Rustow 1970 O'Donnell
  et al. 1986 Przeworski 1991)

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(A) What is a theory?
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(B) What is a hypothesis?

• A testable proposition (Silverman 2005 Table
  7.2)
• A statement that can be tested in research
  (Babbie 2006 47)

• Hypothesis testing is designed to detect
• significant differences between two or more
  variables differences that did not occur by
  random chance
• significant relationships between two or more
  variables relationships that did not occur by
  random chance

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(B) What is a hypothesis?

• Good examples on basis of Lipsets 1959 article
• The more economic development, the more
  democracy in a country
• Economic development is postively related to
  democracy, with more developed countries being
  more democratic than less developed countries

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(B) What is a hypothesis?

• Bad examples on basis of Lipsets 1959 article
• Poor countries are not democratic
• Rich countries are democratic

Not hypotheses, but more statements!
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(B) What is a hypothesis?

• Good examples from other research
• Gender is related to income, with men having a
  higher income than women
• Men are more likely to earn a high income than
  are women

(See also Babbie 2006 47)
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(B) What is a hypothesis?

• Bad examples from other research
• Gender is positively related to income
• Men are positively related to income

(See also Babbie 2006 47)
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(C) What is a concept and variable?

• A concept is an idea deriving from a given model
• (Silverman 2005 Ch. 7)
• Examples
• Economic development
• Democracy
• Income
• Revolution
• Poverty
• War
• See also week 7 of this module

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(C) What is a concept and variable?

• Variables are traits
• that can change values
• from case to case
• Examples
• Level of economic development (gnp per capita)
• Democracy (yes/no)
• Level of income (gnp per capita)
• Type of revolution (elite/mass)
• Age (0 ?120?)
• Gender (m/f)
• Race (white, Asian, African, other)
• Social class (lower, middle, upper)

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(C) What is a concept and variable?

• Concepts on basis of Lipsets 1959 article
• Democracy
• Economic development
• Dependency and world-system role
• Class structure
• Actors
• Democratic diffusion
• Civil society

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(C) What is a concept and variable?

• Variables on basis of Lipsets 1959 article
• Level of democracy
• Level of economic development
• Level of dependency
• Type of class structure
• Level of democratic diffusion
• Size of civil society

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(D) What are good theories?

• Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
• One must start out with error and convert it into
  truth.
• That is, one must reveal the source of error,
• otherwise hearing the truth wont do any good.
• The truth cannot force its way in
• when something else is occupying its place.
• To convince someone of the truth,
• it is not enough to state it,
• but rather one must find the path from error to
  truth.

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(D) What are good theories?

• Karl Popper (1902-1994)
• Scientific theories are falsifiable
• No 'verification', but 'falsification
• Kuhn (1962)
• Paradigms
• Scientific revolutions
• Special position of Social Sciences

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(E) FINALLY

• inductive and
• deductive logic
• see Babbie 2006 46-55
• (p. 50, Figure 2.3!)
• next week data collection

Translation of Dutch cartoon Fokke and Sukke
know what it is all about in science. Fokke
Very impressive, colleague, but does it also
work in theory?