Debates: There is More than One Way to Do Political Science: on Different Ways to Study Policy Networks David Marsh University of Birmingham Martin J. Smith University of Sheffield Our recent article in this journal has provoked a series of responses to which we reply here. However, these responses are very different in tone and content and this is reflected in the balance of this reply. Dowding attacks our work in the context of a claim that, essentially, there is only one way to do social science. This critique is so fundamental that it is the focus of the first section of this reply. In contrast, Raab is mainly concerned to argue that he and McPherson cannot be classified as taking an anthropological approach to networks; indeed, he claims that their work adopts a position which has similarities with our own. Finally, Evans attempts to build upon our article, using the work of Benson, to develop what he regards as a more adequate dialectical approach. We shall deal with both of these contributions in the second section of this reply, in which we consider Dowding’s more specific criticisms of our work. Only One Way to Do Political Science? In effect Dowding argues that there is only one way to do political science. 1 In this section we take issue with this contention. We shall argue first that Dowding is a positivist, second that there are other ways to undertake ‘political science’ gen- erally and the study of networks specifically and third that epistemological issues are crucial because they shape what one studies, how one studies it and what conclusions one draws from research. (i) Dowding’s Positivism Dowding does not discuss ontological or epistemological questions, but he adopts an empiricist, indeed positivist, position. Of course, such an assertion depends to an extent on our understanding of positivism, particularly because it is a position that has changed significantly over the recent past 2 and because Dowding may deny such an attribution. 3 As such, we need to start with a brief discussion of positivism in relation to other positions. POLITICAL STUDIES: 2001 VOL 49, 528–541 © Political Studies Association, 2001. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA