Question

• Why are there so many competing perspectives and interpretations in the study of political science?

Answer 1

Since theory-building serves as the cornerstone of the discipline, seeing how it works may be helpful. You may be wrestling with theories or putting forward your own while writing your paper. Consider how the ideas you're reading and exploring in your course have come to political scientists. When constructing theories, most political scientists adhere to a simple model of scientific inquiry. Developing and testing hypotheses is key to building detailed and convincing theories. Hypotheses are claims that researchers are constructing between two phenomena for the purpose of checking whether or not there is a certain relation.

Political science work seldom yields conclusive results straight away. For example, in this case, while our hypothesis holds true in recent presidential elections, President Franklin Roosevelt was re-elected in 1936 despite the fact that the national unemployment rate was 17%. To understand this significant exception and to make sure other causes, apart from high unemployment rates, were not primarily responsible for the loss of incumbent presidents in other election years, more work would be required. So you can see how political scientists use the scientific method to create ever more reliable and convincing hypotheses and how you might start thinking about the topics