POL SCI 51A Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Behavioralism, David Easton, Mao Zedong
19 Oct 2016
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20 years ago, people would not have predicted that a communist state would have a marketing economy. We are trying to create concepts and theories so that we make less mistakes. Right now there must be many models that predict terrorism, but we are not sure if they are true. In a sense, failure is a part of a scientific end. There are limits to how much certainty we can bring to explaining social and political phenomenons. It is a fruitful method to understand what an apple or orange is. We are learning the boundaries between apples and oranges. We are learning what is inside of them. By comparison we learn much about both. Comparing can help us make arguments about cause and effect by drawing evidence from across space and time. Any phenomenon is also likely happening elsewhere, but how often does it happen. Why are some countries democratic and others not.
