DEFINITIONS IN DESCRIPTIVE AND EXPLANATORY STUDIES
 

    This section pursues a topic introduced earlier.  The conclusions of descriptive studies are inextricably dependent on the definitions of concepts.  Suppose we want to know the percentage of Democrats in a particular city.  Does that mean people who have a membership card issued by the Democratic National Committee, people who attend Democratic functions and work within the party, people who always vote for Democratic candidates, usually vote for Democratic candidates, or who identify themselves as Democrats when asked their party affiliation?  And if the latter, how will we categorize voters who say they are "Independents, leaning toward the Democrats."

    The percentage of Democrats in the city will vary according the definition used.  The same can be said about the percentage of Protestants in the city, the unemployment rate, the precentage poor, etc.  The percentages will depend on the definitions.  If determining the percentage of women in the same city seems to escape this dilemma, that's only because we have a firmer agreement on the meaning of gender, though one which may be threatened by transvestites and transgendered people.

    As mentioned in connection with the interchangability of indicators, however, explanatory analyses may be able to escape this dilemma.  If we have an hypothesis that Jews are more likely to be Democrats than are Protestants, we would probably get the same result no matter which definition of Democrat we used.