The policy sciences as science : method and reification

Abstract

This article discusses the methodological aspects of the policy sciences, as presented in the book The policy sciences: recent developments is scope and method, edited by Harold Lasswell and David Lerner in 1951. Adopting Jürgen Habermas s social theory as a theoretical reference, the methodological positivism outlined by H. Lasswell and Kenneth Arrow is confronted with the more balanced, interpretative methodology proposed by Paul Lazarsfeld and Allen Barton. The article concludes that, parting from the two methodological possibilities opened by the inauguration of the policy sciences as a field of study, it was the positivist approach that had set the dominant character of the policy sciences in the following years.