Bridging Theory and Practice in Political Science

Political science is often perceived more as academic enterprise than as practical knowledge of how societies organize and govern their political matters. Professors of political science tend to pay more attention on research methods and techniques than to field work. Analyses end in most of the cases dealing with official electoral data instead of questioning how these results were actually achieved and what is lying beneath the digits. Comparing became more important than understanding because of the new technologies that allow simultaneous massive and varying data sets analyses. Lost in variables and correlations scholars of political science are less and less tempted to look for explanations beyond the familiar linear and regression research lines. Thus the science initiated by Aristotle to help people understand and improve their societal life missed on its main object – the human being and its actions, ideas, aspirations, demands, fears and hopes.