Lowi's Critique of Political Science: A Response

In: PS: political science & politics, Volume 26, Issue 2, p. 196-198

Abstract

Sometimes an emotional irritant can be intellectually productive and provocative. For me, this was the case with Theodore Lowi's APSA presidential address, reprinted in the American Political Science Review (Lowi 1992). While disagreeing at many points with Lowi's account of the development of political science and with his critiques of the currently "hegemonic" subfields of "public opinion, public policy, and public choice," I am led ultimately to clarify my own understanding of the relationship between politics, ideology, and science. This response to Lowi's address is intended to sketch a different view of the relation between science, especially social science, and government; to argue with Lowi's assessment of the value of reductionist paradigms such as those employed by the three hegemonic subfields; and to say that many of the rest of us are passionate about politics too. In particular, it is intended to indicate how "public choice," my own favored member of that holy trinity, is in fact well suited to address issues critical to the matters of social value with which Lowi is concerned.