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The Real Problem With Political Science
October 20, 2009 Politics

Is also shared by a good portion of the economics profession. Here is what I find frightening:

I try to identify problems and then identify solutions to them,” he said, “to find the type of scientific method” that can answer the question.

Maybe I shouldn’t be too hard. But there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.

Another disappointment I have with political science as a field is that I do not see the kind of entrepreneurial idea development that I see in other fields like Psychology. For example, when was the last influential political science book or article written that explores the question of how other forms of non-coercive voluntary association could fulfill the same role that government does? How many good pieces have we seen asking about how Democracy changes when we get richer and bigger? How many good pieces have we seen asking about different forms of representation (for example, why are we bound to be represented by the place we live … imagine if we did that with our purchases of other goods and services). How can political institutions maintain moral legitimacy when they are rooted in violence? Are there practical ways to improve the choice set of political actors?

I’m not qualified to talk about any of this more deeply, but these are serious questions that I would like to see serious scholars dealing with.

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