IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jothpo/v15y2003i1p87-115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conceptual Problems as Obstacles to Progress in Political Science

Author

Listed:
  • James Johnson

    (University of Rochester, jjsn@troi.cc.rochester.edu)

Abstract

When they assess competing theories political scientists typically rely exclusively and naively on criteria of empirical performance. They have correspondingly little to say about conceptual problems and seem generally unaware of the extent to which their assessments of empirical performance are parasitic on conceptual commitments. This, in turn, hinders their ability to both persuasively conduct and critically assess substantive research. I use four decades of research on political culture as a vehicle for demonstrating how conceptual problems pose obstacles to progress in political science.

Suggested Citation

  • James Johnson, 2003. "Conceptual Problems as Obstacles to Progress in Political Science," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 15(1), pages 87-115, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:15:y:2003:i:1:p:87-115
    DOI: 10.1177/0951692803151004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0951692803151004
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0951692803151004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boix, Carles & Posner, Daniel N., 1998. "Social Capital: Explaining Its Origins and Effects on Government Performance," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(4), pages 686-693, October.
    2. King, Gary & Keohane, Robert O. & Verba, Sidney, 1995. "The Importance of Research Design in Political Science," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(2), pages 475-481, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Samuel Garrido, 2021. "Inequality and conflict as drivers of cooperation: the location of wine cooperatives in pre-1936 Spain," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 15(2), pages 443-476, May.
    2. Natalia Letki, 2008. "Does Diversity Erode Social Cohesion? Social Capital and Race in British Neighbourhoods," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56(1), pages 99-126, March.
    3. Gila Menahem & Gideon Doron & David Itzhak Haim, 2011. "Bonding and Bridging Associational Social Capital and the Financial Performance of Local Authorities in Israel," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(5), pages 659-681, June.
    4. Di Liberto, Adriana & Sideri, Marco, 2015. "Past dominations, current institutions and the Italian regional economic performance," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 12-41.
    5. Benno Torgler & Christoph A. Schaltegger, 2005. "Trust and Fiscal Performance: A Panel Analysis with Swiss Data," Working Papers 2005.61, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    6. Julie L. Hotchkiss & Anil Rupasingha & Thor Watson, 2022. "In-migration and Dilution of Community Social Capital," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 45(1), pages 36-57, January.
    7. Christian Bjørnskov & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2012. "Trust as the missing root of institutions, education, and development," Working Papers CEB 12-031, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Martin Gächter & David A. Savage & Benno Torgler, 2009. "The relationship between Stress, Strain and Social Capital," Working Papers 2010-04, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck, revised Mar 2010.
    9. Paniagua, Victoria, 2022. "When clients vote for brokers: How elections improve public goods provision in urban slums," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Martin Rode, 2022. "The institutional foundations of surf break governance in Atlantic Europe," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 190(1), pages 175-204, January.
    11. Marbuah, George & Gren, Ing-Marie & Tirkaso, Wondmagegn Tafesse, 2021. "Social capital, economic development and carbon emissions: Empirical evidence from counties in Sweden," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    12. Jesús Peiró-Palomino, 2016. "Social Capital and Economic Growth in Europe: Nonlinear Trends and Heterogeneous Regional Effects," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 78(5), pages 717-751, October.
    13. Philip Keefer & Stephen Knack, 2008. "Social Capital, Social Norms and the New Institutional Economics," Springer Books, in: Claude Ménard & Mary M. Shirley (ed.), Handbook of New Institutional Economics, chapter 27, pages 701-725, Springer.
    14. Fabio Sabatini, 2004. "Il rapporto tra Economia e Società nella ricerca sul capitale sociale. Un tentativo di impostazione contabile e una classificazione “funzionale” della letteratura," Others 0411005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Markus Leibrecht & Silvia Rocha-Akis, 2014. "Sozialpartnerschaft und makroökonomische Performance," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 87(8), pages 555-567, August.
    16. F. Pericoli & E. Pierucci & L. Ventura, 2015. "The impact of social capital on consumption insurance and income volatility in the UK: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 269-295, June.
    17. Bergh, Andreas & Bjørnskov, Christian, 2014. "Trust, welfare states and income equality: Sorting out the causality," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 183-199.
    18. Carmine Guerriero, 2020. "Endogenous Institutions and Economic Outcomes," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(346), pages 364-405, April.
    19. Bjørnskov, Christian, 2021. "Civic honesty and cultures of trust," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    20. Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Sjak Smulders, 2003. "Bridging and Bonding Social Capital: which type is good for economic growth?," ERSA conference papers ersa03p517, European Regional Science Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:15:y:2003:i:1:p:87-115. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.