Does a normal science of democracy research exist?

Abstract

In his major work "The structure of scientific revolutions", Thomas S. Kuhn (1962, 2012) proposed the idea of a normal science in a research area. He describes this concept as "research firmly based upon one or more past scientific achievements, achievements that some particular scientific community acknowledges for a time as supplying the foundation for its further practice" (Kuhn 2012: 10). He argues that the normal science can be found in scientific textbooks which "expound the body of accepted theory, illustrate many or all of its successful applications, and compare these applications with exemplary observations and experiments" (Kuhn 2012: 10). This idea of normal science is therefore closely related to Kuhns concept of a paradigm. Following these ideas, this panel aims to discuss if a normal science of democracy research exists today. It wants to look at possible key elements of the current paradigm in democracy research (if there is one), its underlying concepts, theories and methods, and its causes, paths and consequences for studying democracy in the 21st century. Also, the key publications or scholars, who had a major impact on this research area, can be studied. Additionally, it can be asked if such a paradigm is a regional (western) or a global phenomenon. A follow-up question would be if the recent emergence of the network of the Sciences of the Democracies could be seen as a starting point for a possible paradigm change or shift because it opens the debate about the idea of democracy and maybe presents some anomalies and irritations that might lead to a change of the research area. If so, in what sense could we observe such a development? The goal of this panel is to find a preliminary answer to the question over whether a normal science of democracy research exists. We invite everybody to join this discussion and to propose theoretical and empirical evidence to answer the erstwhile posed questions.

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