A Model Discipline: Political Science and the Logic of Representations
Kevin A. Clarke and David M. Primo
Abstract
Models are ubiquitous in political science research. Although game theory models, statistical models, and even non-mathematical models are common in the discipline, the field lacks a coherent foundation for understanding the role models play in scientific inquiry. In A Model Discipline, Kevin Clarke and David Primo challenge the conventional wisdom that theoretical models must be tested by statistical models in order to be useful, and they provide an alternative account for understanding the role of models in political science. In Clarke and Primo’s account, models are tools, like maps, and ... More
Models are ubiquitous in political science research. Although game theory models, statistical models, and even non-mathematical models are common in the discipline, the field lacks a coherent foundation for understanding the role models play in scientific inquiry. In A Model Discipline, Kevin Clarke and David Primo challenge the conventional wisdom that theoretical models must be tested by statistical models in order to be useful, and they provide an alternative account for understanding the role of models in political science. In Clarke and Primo’s account, models are tools, like maps, and should be evaluated based on whether they are useful for a specific purpose, not based on whether they are “true” or “false.” After tracing the historical roots of modern political science and offering their alternative account, the authors then detail the many uses for theoretical and statistical models, providing examples from across the discipline. They also show why that one common use of statistical models, the empirical testing of formal models, is doomed to fail. Clarke and Primo go on to argue that another goal of science, explanation, does justify the combination of theoretical and empirical models. A Model Discipline will be of interest to political scientists and other social scientists who want to understand how and why models ought to be used in scientific inquiry.
Keywords:
models,
game theory,
statistics,
theory,
explanation,
philosophy of science,
falsification,
EITM
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195382198 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2012 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195382198.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Kevin A. Clarke, author
University of Rochester
David M. Primo, author
University of Rochester
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