Theory and Evidence in Comparative Politics and International Relations

This book explores the epistemology and the methodology of political knowledge and social inquiry. What can we know, and how do we know? Friedrich V. Kratochwil and Ted Hopf question all foundational claims of inquiry and envisage science as a self-reflective practice. Brian Pollins and Fred Chernoff accept their arguments to some degree and explore the implications for logical positivism. David A. Waldner, Jack Levy, and Andrew Lawrence address the purpose and methods of research. They debate the role of explanation versus prediction, the relationship of theory to evidence, and their implications for the Democratic Peace research program. A concluding chapter by Mark Lichbach offers a pluralistic reformulation of neopositivism. An alternative conclusion by Steven Bernstein, Richard Ned Lebow, Janice Gross Stein and Steven Weber contends that social science should be modeled on medicine and reformulated as a set of case-based diagnostic tools. The distinguishing feature of the book is the inclusion of authors who represent different approaches to social science and their willingness to engage with one another in a constructive debate.

Richard Ned Lebow is the James O. Freedman Presidential Professor of Government at Dartmouth College and a fellow of the Centre of International Studies at the University of Cambridge.  He is past president of the International Society of Political Psychology and currently an Alexander Onassis Fellow of Classical Studies.  His The Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests and Orders (2003) won the Alexander L. George Award of the International Society of Political Psychology for the best book in the field.  More recently, he has authored Conflict, Cooperation and Ethics (2006) and co-edited Unmaking the West: “What-If” Scenarios that Rewrite World History (2006) and The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe (2006).
 
Mark Irving Lichbach is Professor and Chair of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland.  He received a B.A. (1973) from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, an M.A. (1975) from Brown University, and a Ph.D. (1978) in political science from Northwestern University.  A theorist interested in social choice and a comparativist interested in globalization, Lichbach explores the connections between collective action theories and political conflict as well as the connections between collective choice theories and democratic institutions.  He is the author or editor of many books, including the award-winning The Rebel’s Dilemma, and of numerous articles that have appeared in scholarly journals in political science, economics, and sociology.  His work has been supported by NSF and private foundations.  Lichbach, who was Book Review Editor of the American Political Science Review (1994-2001), served as chair of two other political science departments: the University of Colorado (1995-1998) and the University of California-Riverside (1998-2001).