Axiom 3 – No a priori explanatory privilege

Within this theory, any a priori explanation of social phenomena or processes is valid only insofar as it can be derived from the theory.

• Explanation. This axiom prevents explanations of social processes from being assumed before the analysis has taken place.
  Many existing theories of society attribute fundamental explanatory significance to par­ticular social relations or oppositions. Social change is explained, for example, in terms of class struggle, economic interests, property, struggles for power among elites, techno­logical development, cultural conflicts, religion, relations between the sexes or the inter­ests of the state. Within this theory, such explanations are neither accepted nor rejected in advance.Class differences may prove decisive in a particular social process. Economic interests may have great explanatory significance. Elites may direct or obstruct change. Techno­logical developments may transform existing relations profoundly. But this must emerge from the theoretical analysis in each individual case.The axiom therefore grants no existing theory of society a prior position of preference. The explanatory significance of class, property, elites, technology, religion, the state or other factors must follow from the analysis.