THE ROLE OF EXPERIMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL THEORY
Traditional division of political science into theoretical and empirical components has a negative consequence - the idea that everything theoretical is deprived of experimental. To disclaim this established point of view the article proves that political theory is exposed to experimental verification. The whole theoretical subject of studying political theory can confirm the experimental repetition both by means of classical experiment and by alternative methods (mental experiment, modeling). It is marked that the subject of political philosophy as a constituent of political science initially does not claim for empirical verification. The impossibility of experiment in political philosophy is the condition for its presence in the contents of political science as a subdiscipline. At the same time the role of experiment in the development of political science stands within that requirement of experimental verification in empirical substantiation of political hypotheses arranges them in proper scientific theories and the impossibility of experimentation in certain spheres of political science gives the opportunity to continue the philosophical tradition of normative political science.