Thinking about laws in political science (and beyond)
- Author
- Erik Weber (UGent) , Karina Makhnev (UGent) , Bert Leuridan, Kristian Gonzalez Barman (UGent) and Thijs De Coninck (UGent)
- Organization
- Project
- Abstract
- There are several theses in political science that are usually explicitly called 'laws'. Other theses are generally thought of as laws, but often without being explicitly labelled as such. Still other claims are well-supported and arguably interesting, while no one would be tempted to call them laws. This situation raises philosophical questions: which theses deserve to be called laws and which not? And how should we decide about this? In this paper we develop and motivate a strategy for thinking about laws in political science which integrates two core concepts: spatio-temporal stability and social mechanisms. The proposed strategy is a set of guidelines that political scientists can use to reflect on and argue about specific cases within their discipline, not a clear-cut demarcation criterion. We defend and motivate this strategy and apply it to two cases (one with respect to state repression, one about parliamentary elections). After we have developed and motivated our strategy for political science, we show that our proposal is relevant for other disciplines in the social sciences. We explain how our views fit into critical realism and embed them in the debate on laws in general philosophy of science and in the philosophy of the social sciences.
- Keywords
- law of coercive responsiveness, laws in political science, scientific laws, social mechanisms, spatio-temporal stability, STATE REPRESSION, DUVERGERS LAW, MECHANISMS, THREAT
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8726466
- MLA
- Weber, Erik, et al. “Thinking about Laws in Political Science (and Beyond).” JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, vol. 52, no. 1, 2022, pp. 199–222, doi:10.1111/jtsb.12313.
- APA
- Weber, E., Makhnev, K., Leuridan, B., Gonzalez Barman, K., & De Coninck, T. (2022). Thinking about laws in political science (and beyond). JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, 52(1), 199–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12313
- Chicago author-date
- Weber, Erik, Karina Makhnev, Bert Leuridan, Kristian Gonzalez Barman, and Thijs De Coninck. 2022. “Thinking about Laws in Political Science (and Beyond).” JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR 52 (1): 199–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12313.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Weber, Erik, Karina Makhnev, Bert Leuridan, Kristian Gonzalez Barman, and Thijs De Coninck. 2022. “Thinking about Laws in Political Science (and Beyond).” JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR 52 (1): 199–222. doi:10.1111/jtsb.12313.
- Vancouver
- 1.Weber E, Makhnev K, Leuridan B, Gonzalez Barman K, De Coninck T. Thinking about laws in political science (and beyond). JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR. 2022;52(1):199–222.
- IEEE
- [1]E. Weber, K. Makhnev, B. Leuridan, K. Gonzalez Barman, and T. De Coninck, “Thinking about laws in political science (and beyond),” JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 199–222, 2022.
@article{8726466,
abstract = {{There are several theses in political science that are usually explicitly called 'laws'. Other theses are generally thought of as laws, but often without being explicitly labelled as such. Still other claims are well-supported and arguably interesting, while no one would be tempted to call them laws. This situation raises philosophical questions: which theses deserve to be called laws and which not? And how should we decide about this? In this paper we develop and motivate a strategy for thinking about laws in political science which integrates two core concepts: spatio-temporal stability and social mechanisms. The proposed strategy is a set of guidelines that political scientists can use to reflect on and argue about specific cases within their discipline, not a clear-cut demarcation criterion. We defend and motivate this strategy and apply it to two cases (one with respect to state repression, one about parliamentary elections). After we have developed and motivated our strategy for political science, we show that our proposal is relevant for other disciplines in the social sciences. We explain how our views fit into critical realism and embed them in the debate on laws in general philosophy of science and in the philosophy of the social sciences.}},
author = {{Weber, Erik and Makhnev, Karina and Leuridan, Bert and Gonzalez Barman, Kristian and De Coninck, Thijs}},
issn = {{0021-8308}},
journal = {{JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR}},
keywords = {{law of coercive responsiveness,laws in political science,scientific laws,social mechanisms,spatio-temporal stability,STATE REPRESSION,DUVERGERS LAW,MECHANISMS,THREAT}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{199--222}},
title = {{Thinking about laws in political science (and beyond)}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12313}},
volume = {{52}},
year = {{2022}},
}
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