01.1 Assumptions of Science

There are four basic assumptions of science. The first is called determinism. This means that human behavior is non-random and at least partially explainable. Humans behave in patterns. In the political world, one of the most often-cited principles is that party identification is the most important determinant of one's voting behavior. We are much more likely to vote for the Democratic Party candidate if we identify ourselves as a strong Democrat than if we consider ourselves a strong Republican, for instance. The second assumption is known as empirical. This means that observations are what count for acquiring knowledge, not faith, not myth, and not storytelling. We don't give our opinions without observable factual knowledge. We don't say "I feel that the United States should not give foreign assistance to other countries." We say "We observe that countries receiving foreign assistance from the United States are often key allies of the United States." The third assumption is known as objective. We seek unbiased measures of the political world. Public opinion polls may reveal bias in the wording of questions, for instance. Consider this example: "Candidate Smith seeks tax increases to pay for more government services. Candidate Jones fights for your hard-earned dollars and keeps your taxes low. Do you favor Candidate Smith or Jones's position on taxes?" The language in the survey question could lead the survey respondent to be more inspired by Candidate Jones "fighting for you" and turned off by Candidate Smith "seeking" higher taxes, even if Candidate Jones simply wants to pay for government services in an adequate fashion. The fourth assumption is called replication. Someone else should be able to take your measurement of political behavior (which is called "data"), undertake the same analytical procedure you used, and find the same results. In many respects, replication is the gold standard for science. If you can't replicate the result, then it's likely to have occurred by accident or error. Also, unfortunately, researchers have uncovered cases of scientific misconduct because they were unable to replicate the results of published work. These are the assumptions of science.