Political Science: Witchcraft or Craftsmanship? Standards for Good Research

Scientific debate requires a common understanding of what constitutes good research. The

purpose of this article is to establish such an understanding. The purpose of political science is to

uncover, understand and explain the conformist aspect of social behavior, well aware that not all

behavior is systematically determined by society. Good political science ought to be grounded in

two questions: What do we know, and what are we going to learn? Research question and theory

are decisive, while all discussion about methodology and design is about subjecting our prejudices

and expectations to the most difficult test possible. The binary opposites we are familiar with from

the ‘Methodenstreit' of the social sciences are unproductive.