Titus Alexander ^1,2*

• ¹ Democracy Matters, Galashiels, United Kingdom
• ² Sir Bernard Crick Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, United Kingdom

This paper develops three linked hypotheses aimed at increasing effectiveness of social and political science: first, that all human behaviour and institutions are everyday social experiments that can be improved by social research; second, all institutions embody and develop knowledge about how to do things in society, which are replicated or adapted as social models ('dynamic theories') and can be seen as the social science equivalent to theories in the natural sciences; and third, all institutions (social models) are subject to democratic scrutiny, so that social scientists need to engage with citizens in what can be called the 'democratic method'. These three hypotheses draw on many strands of social science, referenced in the paper.Why does this matter? Humanity's biggest and most difficult problems are social and political, yet funding for academic social science is a low priority while large scale social research is conducted for commercial purposes that may not be in the public interest. By working on institutions as social experiments and models ('dynamic theories'), scholars can improve humanity's ability to solve social problems and achieve more desirable outcomes. The discussion explores practical implications of these hypotheses and how they can be tested, starting with our models of higher education, social research and democracy.