ABSTRACT
The relationship between the social sciences and democracy is very intimate; it is very difficult for one to survive without the other. This explains why in some rich countries, but which are not democratic, social sciences tend to do very poorly. At the same time, it is not as if that in such places there is no increment in knowledge; there is, but in the non-social science streams. This affinity between social science and democracy is so intrinsic that one may even say that there is an elective affinity between them. Even a quick examination of contemporary economics, political science, sociology, even history and philosophy, will show that they can prosper only in democracies. None of these disciplines draw their charter from tradition, on the contrary, their rationale is actually based on the modern concept of citizenship. They are, therefore, not western-centric branches of knowledge as much as they are ‘citizencentric’.
