Abstract

Reflection about the contemporary validity of political descriptive studies, developed and spread by political scientists and, specially, by anglo-american political theorists (huntington). considering giovanni sartori as the more important diffuser of these theories in continental europe, the methodology and the practical proposals of his famous essay the theory of democracy are contrasted, on the one hand, with the main critiques that adorno levelled at descriptivism and, on the other hand, with the arguments that reality itself puts up against its putative description