POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENCE FICTION
In: American political science review, Band 52, Heft 4, S. 1026-1029
ISSN: 0003-0554
What is objectionable in the `new look' in pol'al sci is not quantification as such, but false quantification. From the objective voting behavior of Supreme Court justices,. Schubert & Kort (See SA 4978) have drawn certain uniformities & posited mathematic principles enabling prediction of future action of the Court. This is to confuse the sci'st with the bookmaker, trying to predict behavior of individual units. Moreover, using content analysis to set up a scale of mathematical determinants is here a petitio principii as in the first place it should be proved that judges think in that way. Until behaviorists concern themselves with this level of analysis, their labors remain marginal to the essence of the discipline. IPSA.