Critique of William Riker’s Book: “The Two-Party System and Duverger's Law.”
The essay “The Two-party System and Duverger's Law: An Essay on the History of Political Science” by William Riker, tries to explain the fundamental principles behind the existence of the two-party system in the global politics. The explanation is based on the exposition and explanation of the Duverger’s law. Critical analysis has also been done to explain the background and application of the law over the past many years. In the article, the writer also attempts to expound on why politics can be classified as a science.
Immediately after the introduction of the theme in the abstract, the author seems to lose focus of what he intends to explore. The diversion complicates …show more content…
The comparison of political science to physical and biological science is almost illogical. The latter ones are experiments which are usually conducted consistently in the lab under controlled conditions. The scientist can set time frames of their research on the specimen under investigation. They also have the ability to alter the conditions as they will get the desired results. A collection of information is continuous and so the progress of the set up can continuously be monitored. Eventually, the conclusion that will be made from the experiment will be based on pure facts. On the contrary, the study of the political climate and human behavior is very dynamic and beyond human control and manipulation and takes quite a long time. Thus, the author’s attempt to compare accumulation of political information to the way lab information is gathered is …show more content…
The way he describes the reason for not being called a law by its formulator (p.758) already shows his attitude of rejection. The writer quotes some political scientists that support his opinion. He also gives several cases where the proportional representation hypothesis was applied but yet did not remove the two-part system dominance. However, as he explains, there are still counter examples that prove the working of the hypothesis. The counter-example method is the same one that he used to qualify the application of Duverger’s law but in this case he uses the same principle to reject the hypothesis. Critically thinking, the author appears to be using double standards in his evaluation and so being
The essay “The Two-party System and Duverger's Law: An Essay on the History of Political Science” by William Riker, tries to explain the fundamental principles behind the existence of the two-party system in the global politics. The explanation is based on the exposition and explanation of the Duverger’s law. Critical analysis has also been done to explain the background and application of the law over the past many years. In the article, the writer also attempts to expound on why politics can be classified as a science.
Immediately after the introduction of the theme in the abstract, the author seems to lose focus of what he intends to explore. The diversion complicates …show more content…
The comparison of political science to physical and biological science is almost illogical. The latter ones are experiments which are usually conducted consistently in the lab under controlled conditions. The scientist can set time frames of their research on the specimen under investigation. They also have the ability to alter the conditions as they will get the desired results. A collection of information is continuous and so the progress of the set up can continuously be monitored. Eventually, the conclusion that will be made from the experiment will be based on pure facts. On the contrary, the study of the political climate and human behavior is very dynamic and beyond human control and manipulation and takes quite a long time. Thus, the author’s attempt to compare accumulation of political information to the way lab information is gathered is …show more content…
The way he describes the reason for not being called a law by its formulator (p.758) already shows his attitude of rejection. The writer quotes some political scientists that support his opinion. He also gives several cases where the proportional representation hypothesis was applied but yet did not remove the two-part system dominance. However, as he explains, there are still counter examples that prove the working of the hypothesis. The counter-example method is the same one that he used to qualify the application of Duverger’s law but in this case he uses the same principle to reject the hypothesis. Critically thinking, the author appears to be using double standards in his evaluation and so being