| Chapter 1: | The Domestic Analogy |
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More precisely, I examine the following four models, which result from combining my definition of democracy (political equality and electoral accountability) with the two modern principles of affectedness and intensity:
This book is concerned, then, with normative principles and visions—but that does not mean, of course, that it itself is necessarily subjective or arbitrary. After all, it is the task of political scientists to make considered judgments: that is, to adopt well-founded positions that are closely informed by empirical findings. In the academic milieu from which I hail, the analysis of political ideas and ideologies is considered one of the major tasks of the discipline. The “critique of ideas” is the study of the empirical foundation and the logical consistency of a political ideology. A noteworthy finding is that political belief systems, contrary to what is often assumed, are not based primarily on political values. Rather, claims about reality play the key role here. Take the claim, for example, that women are more interested than men are in environmental issues, or that Muslims are more inclined than adherents of other religions are to take up arms, or that nation-states end up making war upon one another sooner or later. Hypotheses of this kind, in principle, are fully as empirical as those made in the pure sciences; thus they can be tested in the