Abstract

SOARES, Gláucio Ary Dillon. The methodological Achilles’ heel of political science in Brazil. Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas [online]. 2005, n.48, pp.27-52. ISSN 0873-6529.

This article points to the need to teach, study and apply methods - both quantitative and qualitative; from a theoretical and conceptual point of view, it advocates a much greater role for input from the Third World, particularly from Latin America and, from within this region, from the work of Brazilian scholars. This is not a "patriotic" or arbitrary assertion, but rather one which follows from the belief that theories and concepts have cultural and structural parameters. Phenomena which do not exist in a culture cannot be observed, cannot generate concepts, and cannot generate theories which connect these concepts. Phenomena of little significance in their societies rarely attract the attention of researchers. As an extreme example, the introductory manuals and books in political science used in the industrialized world do not include chapters on the military.

Keywords : Methods; Brazil; political science; research.

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