Many core social-science concepts are defined by negation rather than positive attributes.

Evidence

One feature of some—maybe many—concepts is the use of negations in conceptualizing the positive pole. The Democracy–Dictatorship group conceptualizes autocracy as the absence of democracy. Many in the poverty literature consider poverty as the absence or low levels of basic capabilities. Poverty is the absence of basic capacities and freedoms, e.g., absence of health, eduction, choice. The concept of “civil society” is often defined in large part as “not-government” AND “not-for-profit” (e.g., not businesses). — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 469

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows the actual structure of terms like autocracy, poverty, and civil society as negative-space definitions.
• XREF: Connects to Sartori-style concept-formation literatures on negative and residual categories.