“Normative social theories, which are the only relevant answers to problems of value in the social sciences and the humanities, differ radically from this. No normative theory, neither Anglo-American democracy nor Russian communism, neither the Christian ideal nor the Mohammedan ideal for life, could ever hope, nor does it ever pretend, to be completely in accord with what is in fact the case in any specific empirical society. Yet no one takes it as proof of the inadequacy of democracy that there is no actual society anywhere in which the democratic ideal is perfectly realized. One does not take it as an argument against the Christian ideal for life that there are no perfect Christians. Yet, if normative social theories were handled by the same methods as those used for factual social theories, this is precisely what we should conclude when we find our normative social theories to be out of accord with specific facts in any actual society.
“But the whole point of a normative social theory is that it is introduced to change the de facto situation at least in part, rather than to conform to it. It defines the ideal society at which we are aiming. It does not purport to designate, after the manner of a theory in natural science, the de facto state of affairs which we actually have. It is, in short, an answer to a quite different problem and question than the type of problem or question we are trying to answer when we ask for a factual social theory.”
— F.S.C. Northrop