ABSTRACT
In order to undertake comprehensible research, it is necessary to present the scientific presumptions of a study. The presumptions outlined in this afterword are mainly based on pragmatism. The reason for choosing a pragmatic approach is that it seems to provide the best way of dealing with relevant problems in a world full of complexities and of leaving behind the research boundaries between different theoretical and disciplinary research traditions. Pragmatism can be characterized "as an instrument to go about research with an appropriate degree of epistemological and methodological awareness". Pragmatism commits to holism, pluralism, anti-dualism, anti-determinism, anti-scepticism and fallibilism. The need for a pragmatic approach in current research results from, inter alia, inadequate debates about the meta-theoretical questions of political science. Three criteria are characteristic of analytic eclecticism: taking problems of a broad scope, developing complex causal stories at the level of middle range theories and seeking pragmatic engagement in academia and beyond.
