جاي خالي پژوهش هاي تجربي در علوم سياسي ايران

Empirical Researches: Missing Component in Political Science in Iran

A lack of empirical studies in researching political science in Iran is obvious, particularly if compared to other social science disciplines such as sociology, psychology and education. Major published articles in political science in Iran are not based on primary empirical data collected by the author(s) and rely mainly on the existing secondary data. Library researches and, to a smaller extent, document studies constitute the main method of collecting data for producing scientific articles in this discipline. In spite of growing number of published papers based on empirical data in recent years in Iranian political science journals, there has not yet been sufficient development in empirical researches among Iranian political scientists. Empirical studies in the field of political science are for the most part, carried out in the form of mainly funded quantitative/statistical research projects. However, even their findings are rarely available to other researchers and usually filed as confidential. The main consequence of this situation in the field of political science researches is the paucity of empirical data available to researchers for secondary analyses and limited accumulation of knowledge over behaviors of various political actors, whether individual or institutional. This article discusses factors and reasons behind the apparent shortage of empirical researches in Iranian political science and advances the argument that, aside from some structural and institutional factors such as the lack of sufficient financial supports by academic and scientific institutions and difficulties in collecting empirical data in the country, misconceptions over empirical methods and its requisites account for part of the prevalent inattentions to these types of researches. Changing such perceptions, particularly regarding the split between quantitative and qualitative methods, may help researchers to expand empirical researches.