Social Research

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how social research is very dictated by political leadership, political parties and particular cult-of-personality politicians. It looks at how this concept took an evil approach in Nazi Germany, but a more benevolent approach in the post-war West. It evaluates how social research thrives on method, but relies on politics to take its cue and therefore topics such as cloning research are as relevant and as popular as a social science study not only because the pure science has advanced so much that such a feat is possible, but because the politicians in America and other more conservative countries have cried out long and hard against it.

From the Paper:

"Eugenics, viewed today rightfully as a racist study of genetics, had surprisingly innocuous roots: It began in Stanford University, and one of its proponents was Alexander Graham Bell. From these surprising roots, eugenics became the driving force for Hitler to exterminate the Jews, whom he believed were genetically inferior and therefore pollutants to the Aryan race. Such spurious philosophies were not relegated only to the government offices to Hitler's cabinet meetings. Nor were they relegated only to the Army and to those who carried out Hitler's maniacal vision. No, the politics in Hitler's social theories affected social research in Germany to the extent that talented philosophers, scientists and sociologists were swayed to follow Hitler down his path of racism and violence."

More papers on Social Research:

• Term Paper # 46411 : "Political Pressure and Social Research"
• Term Paper # 127749 : "The Practice of Social Research"
• Article Review # 33467 : "Social Research Methods."

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