On Politics, the Political, and Theory: Reflections on the Debate between Method and Theory in the Function of Political Sci

Authors

  • Author

  • Abdelwahab El Affendi

Keywords:

Methodology, Forecasting, Area Studies, Arab Political Science

Abstract

The study presents the problems of structural politicization in political studies, and the danger of methodological debates transforming into political confrontations, a situation that has been repeated in the ongoing debate between the advocates and opponents of secularism. The study demonstrated that the necessity of the political dimension, and/or the political dependencies of every "scientific" approach to politics does not necessarily mean acceptance of unrestricted politicization. It is possible to acknowledge the political content of treatment without slipping into politicization. From this standpoint, criticism of underlying or structural politicization, as in Edward Said's criticism of Orientalism and Western Centralism, cannot be compared to the way that Israel's supporters crudely politicize US Middle East studies in their battle to hold it hostage to the interests of Israel and the extreme right. In the same vein, the study critically addresses the opinion that "area studies" in political science is marked by theoretical poverty and academic inferiority. The study itself leans towards the opinion that so called "theoretical studies" are in fact "area studies" that take western countries as the testing ground for political experiences and seek to generalize the results in the form of "theories" that enjoy universal validity.

Author Biography

  • Abdelwahab El Affendi
    Professor of Political Science, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

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2019-11-01

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Vol. 7 No. 041 (2019): Issue 041

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Studies

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