Jeffrey Isaac’s editorial introduction to the December 2015 issue of Perspectives on Politics, “Varieties of Empiricism in Political Science,” reasserts the pluralistic foundations of our discipline. There are many ways of experiencing the political world, and of interrogating this experience, and of carefully, rigorously, and critically subjecting it to considered analysis and theoretical scrutiny. Whatever its methodological orientation, the best work of political science is motivated by a question about or problem with the actual political world that matters. To this extent, our discipline is characterized not only by a variety of empiricisms, but by a variety of political theories which rests on a variety of interpretations of what matters and why. Perspectives on Politics is a journal committed to recognizing this variety, featuring it, and fostering productive conversations in which colleagues can more reflexively approach their work and more constructively understand both the agreements that join us together and the disagreements that make our scholarly life vital and interesting. [Read more.]
Varieties of Empiricism in Political Science by Jeffrey Issac / Perspectives on Politics / Volume 13 / Issue 04 / December 2015, pp 929-934