• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 785 0

also attaining a cutting-edge theoretical and empirical knowledge of his field. Successful collaboration is therefore likely to take the form of several researchers working together using different methods, or of researchers more self-consciously building on the findings generated by scholars who have used different methods. In either form, effective collaboration requires that even as researchers become expert in one methodological approach, they must also become conversant with alternative approaches, aware of their strengths and limitations, and able to make informed reading of their substantive results. The next chapter shows how varied research methods have contributed to the progress of the democratic peace research program, from a broad hypothesis to a refined set of contingent generalizations.

Organization of the Book

This is a large book, and many readers may wish to focus on chapters that meet their current needs. Chapter 2 is about the research methods that political scientists have used to develop and study the democratic peace theory. It provides an extended illustration of what purposes are best served by different research methods; how knowledge accumulates within a research agenda; and how typological theories draw on the results of a large number of researchers. Chapter 2 reflects our strong belief that each research method is strong at answering particular kinds of questions, and that beyond the din of social scientists’ sometimes heated disagreements, one can discern the cumulation of knowledge in the social sciences.

Part II is intended as a practical guide for graduate students. Chapter 3 introduces case study research design through a discussion of the method of structured, focused comparison. Chapter 4 covers the design of case studies; Chapter 5 discusses the work involved in actually carrying out the study; and Chapter 6 provides guidance for drawing implications for a theory from the findings of a case.

Part III addresses important methodological and epistemological issues of alternative case study methods and also discusses the use of typological theories. The section begins with Chapter 7, on the philosophical underpinnings of our methodological advice. Chapter 8, on comparative methods, focuses on the challenges of case methods that rely on the logic of controlled comparisons and highlights a need for methods that do not rely upon the covariance of variables. Chapter 9 discusses the congruence method, in which the researcher examines the correspondence between the values of the independent and dependent variables in a case. Chapter 10 discusses the method of process-tracing, and identifies its differences and similarities to historical explanation. Chapter 11, on the use of typological theories, provides guidance for the inductive and deductive construction of such theories, and the research designs supported by each. Chapter 12 offers additional advice on how to design research that will be relevant to policymakers; this chapter will also be useful to more senior academics who have not considered this issue.

We have also included an Appendix, “Studies that Illustrate Research Design,” which briefly reviews the research designs of numerous books. This may be useful to graduate students who want to explore research designs in well-regarded studies; it may also be helpful to professors as they design classes in case study methods.

Chapter 2

Case Study Methods and Research on the Interdemocratic Peace

Political scientists have amassed growing evidence in the past three decades that democracies seldom if ever make war upon one another. This finding has sparked a rich literature on whether and how the international behavior of democracies is different from that of other kinds of regimes. Because the resulting “democratic peace” research program has developed so recently and rapidly, it has involved a broad range of sophisticated contemporary research methods and provides an excellent illustration of the methodological themes highlighted in Chapter 1.79 Though disagreements among