Methodology and political science: the discipline needs three fundamentally different methodological traditions

Abstract Science is driven by methodology. In this article, I will show that political science, like all other social sciences, can draw on three fundamentally different methodological traditions. The first is adescriptive traditionto generate descriptive knowledge to describe political phenomena and interpret political symbols (text, image, audio and video). The second is anexplanatory-prognostic traditionto generate explanatory and prognostic knowledge to explain and predict political events. The third is agenuine practical(not applied!)traditionto generate and scientifically legitimate practical knowledge for political standardization and regulation. Furthermore, I will show that political science would greatly increase its relevance to practical politics and to society if all methodological traditions within the discipline were usedcomplementarilyand applied in their updated forms. The descriptive tradition makes it possible to describe political reality as well as sociologists, for example, do. The explanatory-prognostic tradition is necessary to be heard alongside the economic sciences. The practical tradition allows catching up with jurisprudence.