Читать книгу Political Science For Dummies - Marcus A. Stadelmann - Страница 38

Mathematics is one of the most objective disciplines in academia. It’s a natural or hard science, and people believe that it’s impossible to bring values (personal influences) into mathematical research. It makes no difference whether a person is a liberal, conservative, or even communist; when political scientists undertake research using mathematics, they all come to the same conclusions. Adding, subtracting, and using advanced mathematical formulas are all objective and value-free activities.

Not surprisingly, using mathematics to test theories appeals to behavioralists, who believe in objectively testing theories. The best way to tell the academic world that you’re being truly scientific and objective is to test a theory using mathematics, especially statistics. How can people bring their personal norms and values into statistics? Beginning with behavioralism, the use of mathematics in political science is encouraged, and today quantitative analysis has become the norm.

Quantitative analysis is research using numbers derived from survey research, such as public opinion polls or other data sets previously created by other social scientists. Its opposite is qualitative research, which is research using nonnumerical data. In other words, the political scientist deals with some research to which mathematics can’t be applied. Examples are field studies by anthropologists or detailed case studies.