Das Sozialexperiment – Finales Recht als Bindeglied zwischen Politik und Sozialwissenschaft / The Social Experiment
AbstractVantage point is the view, that social sciences do not succeed. The problem of practical testability in its juridical aspects is regarded as its cause. This problem follows from the fact, that social research cannot be done without people used for experimental purpose. Laboratoray experiments are unsatisfactory because we are lacking corroborated observational theories; direct observation and statistical testing cannot replace experiments; therefore we have to rely on field experiments which under present conditions, however, lack sufficient reproducibility. In this science. The legislative principle of finality’ proposed in this paper would oblige the legislator (i) to state in detail the aims and the corresponding empirical hypotheses of any particular legislation and to specify in advance the research plan for testing these hypotheses and (ii) to evaluate the outcome of the ‚legislative experiment‘ so defined and carried out. Such a policy would enable not only letter politics but letter social sciences too.