Ideal-type concepts have near-zero empirical extension by definition

Evidence

Ideal type concepts are most distinguishable by their extension of zero: normally “ideal” means in practice that empirical examples are extremely rare or nonexistent. Here again we see the concern with the relationship between intension and extension. The ideal type concept focuses attention on the extreme end of the concept continuum. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts, 52

In this book I should like to reserve the term “democracy” for a political system one of the characteristics of which is the quality of being completely or almost completely responsive to all its citizens. Whether such a system actually exists, has existed, or can exist need not concern us for the moment. Surely one can conceive a hypothetical system of this kind; such a conception has served as an ideal, or part of an ideal, for many people. As a hypothetical system, one end of a scale, or a limiting state of affairs, it can (like a perfect vacuum) serve as the basis for estimating the degree to which various systems appropriate this theoretical limit. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 1388

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharpens ‘ideal type’ by locating its defining property in extension (zero) rather than in abstraction alone.
• XREF: Recalls Weber’s ideal types and the standard objection that they can never be observed directly.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts: A User’s Guide…, 52; Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 1388