The beginning of the third millennium witnessed a remarkable development in the techniques of scientific research in political science, particularly in the United States, which was further enhanced by the evolution of future studies in this field. Unfortunately, this accumulation has not been beneficial for the experience of teaching and studying political science in the Arab world, due to the influence of academic trends and their direct effect on the future of the discipline in various roles, both direct and indirect. This paper aims to explore the evolution of contemporary dimensions in the teaching of political science and how to approach them as a reformist call for political science in the Arab world, academically and organizationally.
There are three contemporary academic dimensions that have emerged in political science, forming a new “perestroika” that contrasts traditional and empirical approaches, reflecting their theoretical bankruptcy and failure to advance this field. In the Arab world, the teaching and research in political science relies on two academic orientations: traditional and empirical. The first dimension focuses on the study of “phenomena,” examining the nature of phenomena as an ontological issue, while the second dimension emphasizes a comparative analysis of phenomena through methodological and epistemological questions, relying on the objectives of political science—specifically, its normative issues.
These dimensions have, in turn, reflected on the organization and academic teaching of contemporary political science. Intellectually, political science has benefited from the emergence of numerous theories and models to study political phenomena, while departments of political science in the Arab world and many specialized Arab scientific journals have not witnessed the same accumulation and diversity as found in most global universities. The behavioral school criticized the traditional methodology of teaching political phenomena, termed “empirical” or “experimental” in the Arab context, offering various tools, methods, and concepts that still dominate the field of political science in the Arab world.
The core issue lies in the academic adherence to what is traditionally studied during the scientific and academic preparation of those involved in political analysis, which does not allow for scientific and academic alternatives. This indicates a lack of acceptance of the philosophy of scientific development through method and research, prioritizing one methodology over others through insistence and control over the inputs and outputs of scientific research.
For instance, proponents of using mathematical and statistical concepts and methods in political science consider these as the primary approach to study political phenomena. This group, though limited in number within the Arab world, heavily influences decisions relating to selecting professors, promotions, the acceptance of teaching assistants, and determining graduate program curricula.
The dominance of mathematical methods in studying political phenomena, subject to analysis and research, alongside their application to various evaluation cases, presents many disadvantages and drawbacks. Such methods may be appropriate and beneficial for certain political phenomena while requiring different approaches for others.
The reformist call here emphasizes the importance of methodological pluralism instead of the dominance of a single methodology that focuses solely on statistical and mathematical techniques. Attention to political issues related to political science and public policies should not be compartmentalized. The focus on regional studies and the examination of local, grassroots levels of political action and its issues, connecting these levels with other social and economic phenomena, may not be adequately addressed by empirical methodologies. This issue entails challenges regarding promotion and appointment rules, the acceptance of new professors, and the future of scientific research in political science graduate departments, as well as the mechanisms for student selection in the political science field.
The political science field in the Arab world is not without significant flaws. When researching this field, whether through theses, graduate studies, or even publications submitted for academic promotion, there is often a problem regarding the importance of framing the research question as the foundation of the inquiry rather than allowing the research method or study to be the primary focus. The failure to link the political phenomenon under analysis with other economic, social, and cultural phenomena, as well as issues related to public policies and local, regional, and international studies, reflects an academic approach that lacks justification. The third millennium has witnessed changes that cannot be addressed with a single-methodological perspective as the sole reference for analysis and foresight. The diminishing role of the nation-state, the emergence of new regional roles, the spread of political, civil, and cultural phenomena, globalization, political Islam, migration, poverty, the clash of civilizations, climate change, the eruption of identity phenomena, the interplay of economy, politics, and finance, the unipolar world order amid the search for a multipolar system, and the difficulties in democracy and development in many parts of the world necessitate that departments of political science in the Arab world return to studying the philosophy of political science and redefine the term “political science” to reflect its broader political studies.
The plurality of methodologies, their diversity, and the significance of reducing the dominance of a single method while focusing on important issues in political science is vital. Although there exists a variety of research methodologies in political science, there is a lack of similar plurality among those controlling scientific research dynamics in political science departments in the Arab world, as well as in their scientific publications or in the evaluations of others’ works for promotions or acceptance as professors in the field.
Advocates of empiricism agree that all political issues have been exhausted and researched, except for public policy issues! For example, proponents of the mathematical and statistical approach have diverted the present generation’s focus in political scientific research from many political issues fundamentally connected to political science, distancing themselves from the importance of political thought in generating theories and their habitual approach to addressing political science issues and its wide-ranging interests. Thus, care should be taken for all methodologies, irrespective of the methodological beliefs of the individuals working in the field of political science, and it is crucial to study and analyze all emerging phenomena in political science and to explore issues that are significant to humanity.
Our goal in teaching political science is to reach those sciences capable of researching issues subject to observation and analysis, which is why the plurality, density, and variety of methods should be seen as research and scientific tools for achieving our purposes in authentic political scientific research.
The non-mathematical method remains a crucial necessity for addressing issues of the developing world, with the Arab world being no exception. This involves linking political phenomena with their social, cultural, and interpretive frameworks. It remains a means to address and analyze numerous political issues and their contemporary phenomena. Authentic scientific research in political science should not merely be treated as descriptive work or a single case; instead, it should be grounded in relation to theories relevant to the study topic, allowing the researcher to test those theories. However, this is not sufficient; the researcher must also create theories and their laws.
Another issue concerns the curricula of scientific research methodologies in graduate studies, particularly in defining research priorities in contemporary political science. The insistence of advocates of a single methodology obscures opportunities for research students to benefit from diverse methodologies, empirical and non-empirical approaches, thus depriving them of the chance to select the most suitable one for their scientific, research capabilities, study topic, and research problem.
The aim of political science and its teaching needs to be reconsidered across various departments of political science in the Arab world, focusing on issues of importance in today’s world, regardless of their nature or form, even if the dimensions of these issues are multiple. It is not essential for researchers to reach a state of negation or verification. The aim of political science should be to create analytical accumulation for issues subject to observation and analysis, which due to academic time constraints leads to formulating laws for the phenomena requiring observation.
This variation in how “method,” “methodology,” and “methodical approaches” are treated continually generates significant challenges within the scientific and academic community in the Arab world, especially relating to publishing their research and works, appointments, and academic promotions. Many involved in this field refrain from submitting their research and studies for promotions due to fear of having their research and perspectives on their topics caught in the grips of the advocates of empiricism or traditional methodologies.
These concerns extend even to advisory and evaluative committees in journals addressing political and intellectual issues in the Arab world. Some of these journals, without mentioning specific names, have their own guidelines for dealing with issues and the nature of methodologies employed therein. The matter should involve scholarly concern for all significant issues, especially those that represent a shared interest in political science.
Returning to empiricism, their insistence that empirical research methods can convert our behavior and environment, and our perspectives on issues into data suitable for statistical and mathematical analysis to achieve the objectives of political science in tackling issues and phenomena appears deficient in validity, credibility, and objectivity in relation to scientific research. This trend, occurring in research institutions in the Arab world under covert coercion, asserts that any science must be empirical and rooted in statistical and mathematical methods.
Numerous studies known to practitioners in this field argue that the empirical approach cannot be realized and employed except through mathematical and statistical methods. Such claims contradict the objectives of science and scientific research and conflict with the reality of contemporary political science.
Most Arabic studies and writings utilizing testing theory with our political issues operate within a framework that simplifies the reality of the phenomenon subject to analysis and observation. They tend to stereotype the phenomenon under study and research into multiple measurable variables. Not only that, but there is also a tendency to employ numerous complex statistical and mathematical methods to eventually reach generalizations about a set of variables that have little to no connection with the actual context or sample population. We often find it difficult to comprehend such writings and research due to their extensive use of statistical and mathematical methods and multiple concepts, alongside the necessity to adhere to procedural concepts and variables of hypotheses. The more a study or research is presented in this manner, the easier it becomes for them to publish, promote, advance to senior positions, and secure approval for academic theses.
There is no doubt that political science is related to various sciences. However, prioritizing one methodology over others as scientific requisites for specialized science risks reducing political science to a specific aspect with a defined method. Political science has a new and contemporary relationship with futurism, and this qualitative development is evident in many research studies and the attention of research centers and journals towards it.
What can we say regarding its relationship with empirical methods and concepts? The phenomenon of public policy is studied because it has stabilized, like history, for instance.
Political science, if not the most critical of sciences, aims continuously to observe the phenomenon, propose applicable scenarios, and focus on alternatives while providing tools and mechanisms that govern it.
Contemporary political issues and their phenomena are characterized by rapid change, leading to evolving methodologies. For instance, the methodologies of future studies in political science do not necessarily exhibit the characteristics of an independent scientific method. Instead, they evolve by adopting visions from other sciences, making them interdisciplinary studies within political science that do not rely on a specific methodology. Yet, they remain an essential component of political science interests.
There are many avenues, numerous approaches for researching and analyzing the nominated phenomenon for observation and analysis that do not change based on methodologies, and their significance increases and evolves day by day, forming additional horizons for political science.
These include political forecasting, political prediction, prophecy, futurism, and the science of the future, all summarized into the concept of alternative futures, relying on constructing scenarios for studying expected phenomena.
It is evident that change in the environment of the subject matter or the phenomenon to be observed and analyzed in political science, alongside changes in its trajectories and directions, continually creates new academic trends in how to address it, providing elements of subject matter, objectives, and content as essential pillars for the process of future analysis.
This analysis confirms that political science is the science of the past, present, and future. Its conditions cannot be judged solely through the application of a particular methodology; by its dynamic nature, it refuses to be confined within closed circles of “methodological avenues.”
Examining some Arab journals concerned with various political issues, it is commonly found that the scientific research process regarding political issues through the empirical method depends on the extent to which the academic supervisor or researcher can express the essence of the phenomenon under observation and analysis, irrespective of their research methodology—be it mathematical/statistical or otherwise. Regardless of the interpretations or analyses provided, the researcher cannot ignore the different roles and dimensions affecting the phenomenon subject to analysis. This complicates the empirical approach’s ability to analyze through statistical and mathematical models.
The archive of historical, economic, political, cultural, financial, and demographic data concerning most phenomena advancing studies and research in the Arab world often does not reflect the reality of these studies and research, which are pivotal to political science. Many studies and research published in most Arab scientific journals, particularly in areas related to political science, do not accurately depict reality and often present analytical portrayals that significantly diverge from the phenomenon being studied. This significantly draws attention to the importance of ethical dimensions and their absence in such political studies and phenomena in today’s world.
In conclusion, this contribution serves merely as a reminder of the importance of recognizing the role of academic trends in the scientific and research community related to political science in the Arab world. It is a call to reform political science in the Arab world, emphasizing the importance of opening avenues for research students and those engaged in political phenomena to explore various scientific methodologies, avoiding the reduction of methodology philosophy to a single approach focused on specific singular issues. This does not serve the philosophy of science nor does it create knowledge accumulation. The essence of political scientific research lies in its ability to foster knowledge and scientific accumulation.
This issue, raised within its academic contexts, necessitates a reorganization of the Arab political science field and the restructuring of its academic associations and societies, as well as organizing publication rules, promotions, and appointments for those working in this field based on principles of transparency, justice, and objective fairness to be more open, just as political science is in the broader context.
Continuing to deviate from this call will lead political science in the Arab world to lose much of the necessary methodological and cognitive diversity essential for creativity and innovation in addressing political phenomena that require an objective understanding of the discipline. Serious knowledge always demands unbiased and innovative scientific work.
References
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