Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences - Alexander L. George [214]
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Christopher H. Achen and Duncan Snidal, “Rational Deterrence Theory and Comparative Case Studies,” World Politics, Vol. 41, No. 2 (January 1989), pp. 167-168.
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Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Frans N. Stokman, eds., European Community Decision Making: Models, Applications, and Comparisons (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994).
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Scientific realists who have emphasized that explanation requires not merely correlational data, but also knowledge of intervening causal mechanisms, have not yet had much to say on methods for generating such knowledge. The method of process-tracing is relevant for generating and analyzing data on the causal mechanisms, or processes, events, actions, expectations, and other intervening variables, that link putative causes to observed effects.
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See James Lee Ray, Democracies and International Conflict: An Evaluation of the Democratic Peace Proposition (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995), pp. 158-200.
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For discussion, see Chapter 8.
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For a detailed discussion of equifinality and typological theory, see Chapters 8 and 11.
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Seymour M. Lipset, Martin Trow, and James S. Coleman, Union Democracy (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1956). Lipset later provided a remarkably interesting account of the origins and development of the study in “The Biography of a Research Project: Union Democracy,” in Philip E. Hammond, ed., Sociologists at Work, (New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1967), pp. 111-139.
Another example of deviant case analysis is illustrated in Lijphart’s Politics of Accommodation, summarized in the Appendix. Stephen Van Evera emphasizes the importance of studying deviant cases, which he refers to as “outlier” cases, for theory development. See Stephen Van Evera, Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1997), pp. 22-23, 69.
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See, for example, Chapter 12.
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Lawrence B. Mohr, “The Reliability of the Case Study as a Source of Information,” in Robert F. Coulam and Richard A. Smith, eds., Advances in Information Processing in Organizations, Vol. 2 (Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press Inc., 1985), pp. 65-97. The quote is from pp. 82-83. Mohr cites Michael Scriven, “Maximizing the Power of Causal Investigations: The Modus Operandi Method,” in Gene V. Glass, ed., Evaluation Studies Review Annual, Vol. 1 (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1976), pp. 101-118.
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Here, we can use process-tracing inductively. It may even be possible to study all known cases in which a variable assumed a certain value, if the number of such cases is manageably small. If the number of cases is large, then the researcher may choose to narrow the context to cases in a particular country or time period, or he may choose cases in ways that achieve a specified range of values or variables that interact with the manipulable variable of interest.
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Scott D. Sagan, The Limits of Safety: Organization, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993).
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Denise Grady, “Brain-Tied Gene Defect May Explain Why Schizophrenics Hear Voices,” New York Times, January 21, 1997, p. C-3.
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Ray, Democracy and International Conflict, p. 132.
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Gary King, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba, Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994), pp. 208, 210-211.
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This point is emphasized by Ronald Rogowski, “The Role of Theory and Anomaly in Social Scientific Inference,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 89, No. 2 (June 1995), p. 467.
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See Donald T. Campbell and Julian C. Stanley, Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research (Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing, 1973).
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Andrew Bennett, Condemned to Repetition? The Rise, Fall, and Reprise of Soviet-Russian Military Intervention, 1973-1996 (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999).
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Olav Njølstad, “Learning