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Why Unitary Social Science? pleads for a comprehensive appraisal of social reality. Tracing the visionary and transformative paths of reality from the subjective to the objective points of view, Mukherjee argues that it is precisely the division of social science into discrete compartments as disciplines that thwarts the emergence of an objective science of society. Social science is seen here as unitary with diverse specialisations emerging from a single base but proliferating endlessly as k

International audience ; This article considers the conflicts linking the social question to the social sciences in Germany around 1900 through the analysis of the student associations for social sciences (Sozialwissenschaftliche Studentenvereine). Students did not seek an introduction to social sciences as academic scientific disciplines in particular, which remained loosely autonomous and suffered from heterogeneous definitions and uses. Much more, students looked for a scientific legitimacy for the resolution of the social question, a task that had to be tackled by the elite they felt destined to join. For a large part of university and political authorities, this interest for the social question could only mean socialism. Therefore, they repressed these associations, especially in Prussia, despite their certain attractivity. The history of these associations allows to understand the attempts to redefine the social role of elites as well as the institutionalisation of the social sciences, which turn out to be closely linked. ; Cet article revient sur les conflits qui lient question sociale et sciences sociales en Allemagne autour de 1900, en mettant au cœur de l'analyse les associations étudiantes de sciences sociales (Sozialwissenschaftliche Studentenvereine). Ce ne sont pas tant les sciences sociales en tant que disciplines universitaires, faiblement autonomisées et aux définitions et usages encore hétérogènes, qui sont recherchées par les étudiants, qu'un cadre et une légitimité scientifiques au règlement de la question sociale, tâche à laquelle doit s'atteler l'élite qu'ils s'estiment destinés à rejoindre. Pour une large partie des autorités universitaires et politiques, cet investissement de la question sociale ne peut qu'être synonyme de socialisme et elles se sont attachées, surtout en Prusse, à réprimer ces associations, malgré leur certaine attractivité. Ces associations rendent en cela visibles les tentatives de redéfinition du rôle social des élites et l'institutionnalisation universitaire des ...

Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- Hypotheses from Heaven -- Into the Fog Without a Compass -- The Cart Before the Horse -- Picking Only the Sweet Fruits -- Unresearchable Problem Statements -- The Rule of Action -- Organisation of This Book -- References -- Chapter 2: Scientific Knowledge and Practice -- The Characteristics of Scientific Knowledge and Practice -- Scientific Statements -- Empirical Statements, Norms, and Practice -- More on Testing of Scientific Statements -- Our Social Construction of the World -- Science and Knowledge Development -- The Contested Truth -- From an Understanding of Knowledge to Social Science Practice -- References -- Chapter 3: Social Science as Reconstruction of Social Phenomena -- The Study of Social Facts and Phenomena -- Explanations in Social Science -- Social Science as Reconstruction of Social Patterns and Processes -- The Elements of Reconstruction -- Backgrounds -- Concepts -- Theories and Hypotheses -- Models -- Data Construction -- From the Building Stones of Reconstruction to the Logic of Reconstruction -- References -- Chapter 4: The Logic and Methodological Rules of Reconstruction -- Hypothetical-Deductive Research Logic: Explaining by Laws -- Abductive Research Logic: Uncovering Social Mechanisms -- Hermeneutic Research Logic: Interpretative Understanding of Social Phenomena -- Critical Theory -- Discourse Analytical Research Logic: Hegemonic and Alternative Frameworks of Understanding -- A Comparison of the Research Logics -- References -- Chapter 5: Design of Research Projects -- Research Purposes, Data Construction, and the Phases of the Design Process -- Research Designs and Purposes -- Theory- and Hypothesis-Testing Purposes -- Concept- and Theory-Developing Purposes and Questions -- Theoretically Interpretative Purposes.

"Extreme polarization in American politics - and especially in the U.S. Congress - is perhaps the most confounding political phenomenon of our time. This book binds together polarization in Congress and polarization in the electorate within an ever-expanding feedback loop. This loop is powered by the discipline exerted by the respective political parties on their Congressional members and district candidates and maintained by the voters in each Congressional district who must choose between the alternatives offered. These alternatives are just as extreme in competitive as in lop-sided districts. Tight national party discipline produces party delegations in Congress that are each ideologically narrowly distributed but widely separated from one another. As district constituencies become more polarized and are egged on by activists, parties are further motivated to move past a threshold and appeal to their respective bases rather than to voters in the political center. America has indeed acquired parties with clear platforms - once thought to be a desirable goal, but these parties are now feuding camps. What resolution might there be? Just as the progressive movement slowly replaced the Gilded Age, might a new reform effort replace the current squabble? Or could an asymmetry develop in the partisan constraints that would lead to ascendancy of the center, or might a new and over-riding issue generate a cross-cutting dimension, opening the door to a new politics? Only the future will tell"--

Disagreements over whether polarization exists in the mass public have confounded two separate types of polarization. When social polarization is separated from issue position polarization, both sides of the polarization debate can be simultaneously correct. Social polarization, characterized by increased levels of partisan bias, activism, and anger, is increasing, driven by partisan identity and political identity alignment, and does not require the same magnitude of issue position polarization. The partisan-ideological sorting that has occurred in recent decades has caused the nation as a whole to hold more aligned political identities, which has strengthened partisan identity and the activism, bias, and anger that result from strong identities, even though issue positions have not undergone the same degree of polarization. The result is a nation that agrees on many things but is bitterly divided nonetheless. An examination of ANES data finds strong support for these hypotheses. Adapted from the source document.