Quantification and Scientism in Political Science: Domination of Discourse by Experts Presenting Mathematical Models of Reality

Abstract

Mathematization has become increasingly dominant in the social sciences. Political science research reflects this trend. Unfortunately, complex mathematical models do not reflect reality and have little relevance to public political discourse. Indeed, much of the quantification in political science research is fraught with fallacies, not the least of which are reification and scientism. Even simple statistical models such as crosstabs and simple tests such as Pearson's‐chi square are fallacious but not well understood by the less mathematically oriented social scientist. In addition to discussing the main problems of quantification, the author illustrates an egregious misuse of statistics by prominent social scientists relying on quantitative studies pertaining to criminal behavior.

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