Government 704 Andrew Bennett

Spring 2021 Georgetown University

Thursdays 3:30-6:00 [email protected]
https://georgetown.zoom.us/j/4175863864 Office Hours Tuesdays 1-2 on Zoom or by
appointment
Office Hours Zoom Link:
https://georgetown.zoom.us/j/91501720827

Qualitative Research Methods

Course Goals

The seminar aims to enable students to create and critique methodologically sophisticated
case study research designs in the social sciences. To do so, we will explore the techniques, uses,
strengths, and limitations of case study methods, while emphasizing the relationships among
these methods, alternative methods, and contemporary debates in the philosophy of science. The
research examples used to illustrate methodological issues will be drawn from international
relations, comparative politics, and American politics. However, the methodological content of
the course is also applicable to the study of history, sociology, economics, business, public
health, and many other social and policy sciences.

The seminar begins with a focus on the philosophy of science, theory construction, theory
testing, causality, and causal inference. With this epistemological grounding, the seminar will
then explore the core issues in case study research design, including methods of structured and
focused comparisons of cases, typological theory, case selection, process tracing, congruence
testing, and the use of counterfactual analysis. Next, the seminar will look at the epistemological
assumptions, comparative strengths and weaknesses, and proper domain of case study methods
and alternative methods, particularly statistical methods and formal modeling, and address ways
of combining these methods in a single research project. The seminar then examines field
research techniques, including archival research and interviews. It concludes with student
presentations of case study research designs and constructive critiques of these designs by
seminar participants. Presumably, many students will choose to present the research design for
their thesis, though students could also present a research design for a separate project, article, or
edited volume.

The seminar is designed as a “flipped” class: I have created a series of videos that
students can watch asynchronously before each class meeting, which leaves our synchronous
meeting time free to focus on discussion, exercises, examples, and feedback on students’ drafts
of the different parts of their research designs. I recommend that you do the readings for each
week first, then watch the videos, but of course you can figure out what order works best for
you.

The video links are here:

https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/cqrm/IQMR_Resources_and_Materials/

Requirements

Mastery of assigned readings and active participation in seminar discussions.

Research Design Papers and Comments on other Students’ Papers. Students will be
required to submit four short research design papers that build toward a final longer paper that
integrates the earlier papers into a full research design. The design can be for a qualitative or
multi-method research project, presumably the student’s PhD thesis (or MA thesis for any MA
students in the course), or a candidate topic for the PhD thesis. It could also be a research design
for a journal article length paper, as long as it includes a qualitative component.

At the end of the semester each student will present their full research design in the seminar for a
constructive critique of a half-hour or so, with a 2-minute introduction from the student and/or
brief reading questions the student circulates with their paper suggesting issues or
methodological dilemmas upon which participants should focus. The rest of the time will focus
on constructive critiques from the students and Prof. Bennett.

Research designs should address all of the following tasks (elaborated upon in the George-
Bennett chapters in the assigned readings below): 1) specification of the research problem,
question, or puzzle and research objectives, in relation to a focused literature review of the
relevant research program(s), related literatures, and alternative explanations, including a
bibliography of the theoretical and empirical literatures relevant to your question; 2)
specification of the independent and dependent variables of the main hypothesis of interest and
alternative hypotheses, and their attendant concepts and measures; 3) a well-defined population,
case, or set of cases to be studied (and, if one or a few cases are to be studied, identification of
the wider population of which they are a part and discussion of where they fit into this
population), and justification of why these cases were selected and others were not; 4)
specification of the data requirements, including both process tracing evidence and
measurements of the independent and dependent variables for the main hypotheses of interest,
including alternative explanations. You should also begin the process of Institutional Review
Board approval if you are committed to researching your topic (rather than merely trying it out
as a possible project) and if it is necessary for your research (this primarily applies to those
doing interviews for their research).

There is no minimum length limit, though most designs will probably be around 4000-5000
words (about 20 pages double spaced) and should be shorter than 7,000 words/28 pages.

Grading

35% mastery of the readings as evident through participation in class discussions and comments
on others’ research designs
65% written research design
Books for Purchase

Alexander L. George and Andrew Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social
Sciences (MIT Press 2005).

Andrew Bennett and Jeffrey Checkel, eds., Process Tracing: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool
(Cambridge, 2014).

Gary King, Robert Keohane, and Sidney Verba, Designing Social Inquiry (Princeton University
Press, 1994).

Henry Brady and David Collier, Rethinking Social Inquiry, second edition (2010)

Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts: A User’s Guide, (Princeton, 2005).

Gary Goertz and James Mahoney, A Tale of Two Cultures: Qualitative and Quantitative
Research in the Social Sciences, Princeton University Press, 2012

Jason Seawright, Multi-Method Social Science: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Tools
(Cambridge, 2016)

Course Outline

I) Philosophy of Science and Epistemological Issues

Jan. 28 Philosophy of Science: Inferences About Causal Effects and Causal Mechanisms

II) Case Study Methods

Feb. 4 Critiques and Justifications of Case Study Methods

Feb. 11 Designs for Single and Comparative Case Studies and Alternative Research Goals

Feb. 18 Concept Formation and Measurement

Feb. 25 Typological Theorizing and Case Selection

Mar. 4 Process Tracing I: Practical Advice, Exercises

Mar. 11 Process Tracing II: Formal Bayesian Approaches, Exercises

Mar. 18 Field Research Techniques: Archives, Interviews, and Surveys

Mar. 25 Multimethod Research: Combining Case Studies with Statistics and/or Formal
Modeling

Apr. 1 Spring Break, No Class

April 8 Counterfactual Analysis, Natural Experiments

April 15 Macro-Historical Comparison, Critical Junctures, and Path Dependency

April 22 Student research design presentations

Apr. 29 Student research design presentations

May 6: Student research design presentations

Readings and Videos

I) Philosophy of Science and Epistemological Issues

Inferences about Causal Effects and Causal Mechanisms

Alexander L. George and Andrew Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development, preface and
chapter 7 on philosophy of science issues.

Keohane, King, and Verba (hereafter KKV), Designing Social Inquiry pp. 3-33, 76-91, 99-114.

Videos 1, 2, 3, 4 (1 hour 12 minutes total).

Google Doc for input on discussion questions:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fB6fKTGSVYQBleLArYY0ZVbPTlOZRtmMj_1Kf-
NSJgM/edit?usp=sharing

II) Case Study Methods

Critiques and Justifications of Case Study Methods

KKV, Designing Social Inquiry, pp. 46-48, 118-121, 208-230.

Brady and Collier, pages 1-64, 123-201.

Gary Goertz and James Mahoney, A Tale of Two Cultures, pages 1-13, 41-82, 127-148, 177-226.

Videos 5, 6 (58 minutes total).

Google Doc for discussion questions:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y9DGJ7XzuUXU77441gUXnR0YdM2RgQt99f3KnG-
Ssfs/edit?usp=sharing

Optional:

George and Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development, Chapter 1.

Joseph Simmons, Leif Nelson, and Uri Simonsohn. 2011. “False-Positive Psychology:
Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as
Significant,” Psychological Science 22 (11) 1359-1366. Available at:
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/22/11/1359.full.pdf+html

Bennett paper on generalizing from case studies. On Canvas.

Designs for Single and Comparative Case Studies and Alternative Research Goals

Andrew Bennett and Alexander George, Case Studies and Theory Development, chapter 4.

John Gerring and Jason Seawright, “Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research: A
Menu of Qualitative and Quantitative Options, Political Research Quarterly 61:2 (June 2008)
294-308.

Designing Social Inquiry pp. 124-149.

Jay Seawright, Multi-Method Social Science, chapter 4, pp. 75-106.

Fairfield and Andrew Charman, APSA 2018 paper on case selection. On Canvas under
“Readings”

Videos 8, 9, 10, 11 (one hour nine minutes total).

Write your own notes for our discussion on:

1) One or more interesting questions about the politics of covid that we might research with
case studies
2) Alternative hypotheses on the covid politics research question(s) you identified
3) Cases you might select to study the covid politics question you have identified (most-
and least-similar cases, typical cases, negative cases, extreme on X and extreme on Y
cases, deviant or outlier cases)
4) How might each of the ten challenges for case study research apply to case studies of the
politics of the covid pandemic?

Writing Assignment 1 : State your research puzzle or question and your proposed alternative
explanations in a one page (up to 300 words) abstract. The abstract should be posted on
Canvas no later than noon on the Saturday before the next class. Each student should
read all of the abstracts and be ready to comment on them in class.

Concept Formation and Measurement, Alternative Explanations; How to do Online

Literature Searches, Write a Literature Review, and Situate your Topic with Respect to
the Relevant Literatures

Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts, chapters 1, 2, 3.

Robert Adcock and David Collier, “Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative
and Quantitative Research,” APSR Vol. 95, No. 3 (September, 2001) pp. 529-546.

A Guide to Writing Literature Reviews in Political Science and Public Administration

Department of Political Science UNC Charlotte July 2006, at:

https://politicalscience.uncc.edu/sites/politicalscience.uncc.edu/files/media/docs/litreviews.pdf

See also advice from Raul Pacheco-Vega here:

http://www.raulpacheco.org/resources/literature-reviews/

Video 7 (31 minutes).

Make your own notes for out discussion on the following “problematic” (conceptually tricky or
difficult to measure) concepts:

Legitimacy
Cooperation
Risk
Preferences
Rationality
Misperception
Success
Power
Any concepts in your own research that you are finding it difficult to define and measure, and
which you would like to discuss/brainstorm upon.

Gary Goertz has heroically created a large number of exercises related to his book. The exercises
are published online at the following link, but note if Gary has updated this after January 8, 2015
the new exercise numbers may be different (note the update date at the start of the exercises):

http://press.princeton.edu/releases/m8089.pdf 

Please think through the following exercises: 7, 21, 48, 49, 52, 163, 252, 253, 256, 257. Update
numbers

Note also this summary from Boote and Beile on literature reviews:

Bibliographic sources worth exploring for your literature review (partial list):

Major IR academic journals, both general and specialized: International Security, Security
Studies, International Organization, European Journal of International Relations, Millennium,
International Studies Quarterly, World Politics, American Political Science Review,
Perspectives on Politics (including its book reviews), Journal of Conflict Resolution
Major AG journals: American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political
Science, Journal of Politics, American Sociological Review, Legislative Studies Quarterly

Major CP Journals: World Politics, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies,

Studies in Comparative International Development, Journal of Democracy

Major Methodology Journals: Sociological Methods and Research (lots of qualitative

methods), Political Analysis (mostly quantitative methods)

Annual Reviews of Political Science (and Sociology, Economics)

Websites: Google scholar (if the articles have been peer reviewed); For IR students, see alsoThe
William and Mary survey of IR scholars and the website of its Institute on Theory and Practice
of International Relations, https://trip.wm.edu/charts/ - /questions/38

Browse online: American Political Science Association (APSA) and International Studies
Association (ISA) divisions. See also their annual conference schedules and the panels and
papers listed under each division.

Graduate syllabi. Find online, possibly using individual faculty names as a search term.

Writing Assignment 2:

Revise your abstract as needed in response to previous feedback, keeping it to 300 words. Write
a literature review (up to six pages or 1800 words, but possibly shorter) for your topic. In your
literature review comment selectively on which of the articles, books, and/or schools of thought
are most relevant to your research question, and indicate how you are building on, going beyond,
or arguing against each key source or school of thought. Write a preliminary bibliography
(roughly 5-10 books, 15-20 articles; short and informal citations are OK at this point) and briefly
annotate each key source with a few sentences. Post the revised abstract literature review, and
bibliography on Canvas by Saturday at noon.

In class, each student will be responsible for providing feedback on the literature review of the
next two students who follow them, alphabetically by last name, in the course roster. The
second-to-last student in alphabetical order will comment on the paper of the student at the end
of the alphabet and the student at the start of the alphabet, and the last student, alphabetically,
will comment on the first two.

Typological Theory, Interactions Effects, and Case Selection

Andrew Bennett and Alexander George, CSTD chapter 11.

Andrew Bennett, chapter excerpt on typological theory from Jeff Checkel, ed., Transnational
Dynamics of Civil War. On Canvas.
Colin Elman, “Explanatory Typologies and Property Space in Qualitative Studies of
International Politics,” International Organization, Spring 2005, pp. 293-326.

Gary Goertz and James Mahoney, “Negative Case Selection: The Possibility Principle,” in
Goertz, chapter 7.

David Collier, Jody LaPorte, Jason Seawright . “Putting typologies to work: concept formation,

measurement, and analytic rigor.” Political Research Quarterly, 2012

Videos 12, 13 (52 minutes total).

Prepare for the discussion of the two exercises:

1) How well does the Bennett, Lepgold, and Unger typological theory fit with subsequent
alliance and coalition burden sharing episodes, specifically, those in UNPROFOR and
IFOR, Afghanistan, and Iraq? What cases in these episodes do not fit the theory well?
What additional theories and variables might help explain those cases?
2) What is the organizing principle for the way David Edelstein laid out the cases in his
appendix? Reorganize the cases in his appendix into a typological theory table. Having
done this, do the cases in his population fit his theory well, and how can we tell? What
cases in his population allow for most-similar case comparisons? What cases constitute
potential anomalies or deviant cases for his theory? What cases in history were most
similar to the US occupation of Iraq, and in how many of those did the occupying
country succeed in the goals of its occupation?

Brief Examples:

Bennett, Lepgold, and Unger, Friends in Need, pp. 24-28

Andrew Bennett, Condemned to Repetition: The Rise, Fall, and Reprise of Soviet- Russian
Military Interventionism 1973- 1996 pp. 12-29, 104-112.

David Edelstein, "Occupational Hazards: Why Military Occupations Succeed or Fail,"

International Security Vol. 29 No. 1 (Summer 2004) pp. 49-56, 80-91.
 
Also, think through Goertz’s exercises for this chapter. Again, note that if Gary has updated this
after January 8, 2015 the new exercise numbers may be different (note the update date at the
start of the exercises):

http://press.princeton.edu/releases/m8089.pdf 

Please think through the following exercises: 312, 313, 316, 328, 333, 336 update numbers
Writing Assignment 3: Write up Alternative Hypotheses, Definitions of Concepts, Measures of
Variables and Indicators. Give a flow diagram and a draft typological table of your argument.
Identify the population of cases relevant to your research question, including negative cases, and
identify which cases or populations you have chosen for study and what types of analyses and/or
comparisons you will make. Give a rationale for why you chose the cases you did, and discuss
briefly the cases you almost chose to study but did not (and why not). Approximately 1500-2500
words. Post on Canvas by noon on Saturday.

For class, each student will read and comment on the papers of the previous two students,
alphabetically by last names, in the course roster.

Process Tracing I

Bennett and Checkel, Process Tracing: intro chapter, Waldner chapter, concluding chapter.

Fairfield, Tasha. 2013. “Going Where the Money Is: Strategies for Taxing Economic Elites in
Unequal Democracies.” World Development 47: 42–57.

Jacob Ricks and Amy Liu, “Process Tracing Research Designs: A Practical Guide,” PS:
Political Science and Politics 51:4 (October 2018). At:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-
core/content/view/1AD4062D94FD81299724B41699D1972E/S1049096518000975a.pdf/proces
stracing_research_designs_a_practical_guide.pdf

Scott Sagan, The Limits of Safety, pp. 1-14, 45-52; Yuen Foong Khong, Analogies at War, pp.
51-68.

Video 18 (21 minutes).

Read and prepare the Process Tracing Exercises June 2018 on Canvas. Ignore the first two
(Pinocchio, choose a number) exercises and the four on the third page that are web links to
documents.

David Collier exercises on process tracing, at:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1944646

Process Tracing II: Formal Bayesian Approaches

Tasha Fairfield and Andrew Charman, “Explicit Bayesian Analysis for Process Tracing:
Guidelines, Opportunities, and Caveats” Political Analysis vol. 25, no. 3 (July 2017) pp. 363-
380
Humphreys, Macartan, and Jacobs, Alan M.. 2015. “Mixing Methods: A Bayesian
Approach.” American Political Science Review 109 (4): 653–73

Possible additional reading from Tasha Fairfield’s and Andrew Charman’s forthcoming book.

Video 19 (one hour).

Work through the Fashoda Exercise (on Canvas)

Writing Assignment 4: Discuss how you will do process tracing – what are the observable
implications of your hypotheses, what kind of evidence might be brought to bear on them, what
questions you would ask in interviews or evidence would you seek in archives or other sources
(include lists of any relevant archival sites and types of documents; you need not list individual
archival documents), which people (or what kind of people) you will seek to interview. Pick at
least one piece of evidence or kind of evidence and do a Bayesian analysis of what your priors
and likelihood ratios are and how you would update your priors depending on what you find the
evidence to be once you gather it. About four to eight pages or 1000-2000 words. Post on
Canvas by noon on Saturday.

In class, each student will read and comment on the papers of the previous two students,
alphabetically by last names, in the course roster.

Field Research Techniques: Archives, Interviews, and Surveys

Diana Kapiszewski, Lauren M. MacLean, and Benjamin L. Read, “Field Research in

Political Science:  Practices and Principles,” chapter 1 in Field Research in Political Science:
Practices and Principles (Cambridge University Press). Read pages 15-33.

Elisabeth Jean Wood, “Field Research,” in Carles Boix and Susan Stokes, eds., Oxford
Handbook of Comparative Politics, Oxford University Press 2007, pp. 123-146.

David Collier, “Data, Field Work, and Extracting Ideas at Close Range,” CP Newsletter, 10:1,
pp. 1-6.

Cameron Thies, “A Pragmatic Guide to Qualitative Historical Analysis in the Study of

International Relations,” International Studies Perspectives 3 (4) (November 2002) pp. 351-72.

Videos 16, 17 (50 minutes).

Prepare to discuss how you plan to use archival research and interviews in your work, and any
potential challenges you foresee and questions you have about doing your field research.

Writing Assignment 5:
Integrate the previous short papers into a full research design paper, revising as needed to
incorporate the advice you have received and new ideas you have developed through the
semester. You should post your paper on Canvas a week before we will discuss it in class
(students will sign up in class for presentations dates – see the course schedule above for those
dates).

Multimethod Research: Combining Case Studies with Statistics and/or Formal Modeling

Andrew Bennett and Bear Braumoeller, “Where the Model Frequently Meets the Road:
Combining Statistical, Formal, and Case Study Methods,” draft paper.

Evan Lieberman, “Nested Analysis as a Mixed-Method Strategy for Comparative Research,”

APSR August 2005, pp. 435-52.

Jay Seawright, Multi-Method Social Science, chapter1 1-3, 5, 7, 8.

Videos 14, 15 (36 minutes).

Exercise for discussion: analyze the table Schultz provides on his cases, specifically, whether
there is any pattern to the cases that do and do not fit his theory. Then analyze his discussion at
the end of his book about the cases that do not fit his theory – is there anything odd about the
way he discusses the non-conforming cases?

Counterfactual Analysis, Natural Experiments

Jack Levy, Counterfactuals, Causal Inference, and Historical Analysis

Security Studies, 07/2015, Volume 24, Issue 3

Thad Dunning, “Design-Based Inference: Beyond the Pitfalls of Regression Analysis?” in

Brady and Collier, pp. 273-312.

Thad Dunning, Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences: A Design‐Based Approach

(Cambridge University Press, 2012), Chapters 1,7

Jay Seawright, Multi-Method Social Science, chapter 6, pp. 124-149.

No videos (yet) for this topic.

Discussion: What counterfactuals are implied by the (possibly preliminary or tentative) causal
argument you are planning to make in your research? How might you assess them?

Macro-Historical Comparison, Critical Junctures, and Path Dependency

Paul Pierson, “Big, Slow Moving, and Invisible: Macro-Social Processes in the Study of
Comparative Politics,” in Mahoney and Rueschemeyer, Comparative Historical Analysis in the
Social Sciences (Cambridge, 2003).

James Mahoney, “Path Dependence in Historical Sociology,” Theory and Society 29 (2000) pp.
507-548.

Scott Page, “Path Dependence,” Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 2006, 1: 87-115.

James Mahoney, “Toward a Unified Theory of Causality,” Comparative Political Studies, vol.
41 no. 4/5, April/May 2008.

Gary Goertz and James Mahoney, “Concepts in Theories: Two Level Theories,” in Goertz,
chapter 9.

No videos (yet) for this topic.

Discussion: What are the critical junctures, if any, in the phenomenon or cases you are planning
to study? What are the mechanisms of production and reproduction of the norms and institutions
involved in your research question? Which of these mechanisms involve increasing returns,
which involve diminishing returns, and which might lead to what Mahoney calls reactive
sequences?

Additional Useful Readings

Research transparency, ethics, and the replication challenge

--Andrew Moravcsik in Security Studies on research transparency

Andrew Moravcsik, “Active Citation: A Precondition for Replicable Qualitative

Research,” PS: Political Science and Politics 43(1) (January 2010): 29‐35.

Colin Elman, Diana Kapiszewski, and Lorena Vinuela, “Qualitative Data Archiving:
Rewards and Challenges,” PS: Political Science and Politics 43(1) (January 2010): 23‐27.

“Why Most Published Research Findings Are False“, John P. A. Ioannidis, Public Library of
Science Medicine, 30 August 2005.

“The Replication Crisis in Psychology” by Edward Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, NOBA,
2016.

“How science goes wrong: Scientific research has changed the world. Now it needs to change
itself“, The Economist, 19 October 2013.
“1,500 scientists lift the lid on reproducibility” by Monya Baker, Nature, 25 May 2016 —
“Survey sheds light on the ‘crisis’ rocking research.”

“Replication initiatives will not salvage the trustworthiness of psychology” by James C. Coyne
at BioMed Central (peer-reviewed, open access), 31 May 2016.

“Is Most Published Research Really False?“, Jeffrey T. Leek and Leah R. Jager, Annual
Reviews, March 2017.

Case Studies and The Interdemocratic Peace Research Program

James Lee Ray, Democracies and International Conflict, pp. 11-42, 86-87.

Christopher Layne, "Kant or Cant: The Myth of Democratic Peace," and John Owen, "How
Liberalism Produces Democratic Peace," in International Security Fall 1994.

Miriam Elman, ed., Paths to Peace: Is Democracy the Answer? (MIT Press, 1997). pp. 1-57,
473-506.

Case Studies in American Politics

Richard Neustadt, Presidential Power

Burke and Greenstein, How Presidents Test Reality

Larry Sabato, Media Feeding Frenzies

Stephen Skowronek, The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to George
Bush

Richard Fenno, Homestyle: House Members in their Districts

I) Philosophy of Science and Epistemological Issues:

Charles Ragin and Howard Becker, "Introduction" to Ragin and Becker, What is a Case?
(Cambridge, 1995), pp. 1-17.

Qualitative Methods Newsletter symposium articles on causal mechanisms by Jacobs, Beach,

Runhardt, Waldner, and Bennett:

https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/cqrm/Volume_14_Issue_1_2/Jacobs/
https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/cqrm/Volume_14_Issue_1_2/Beach/
https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/cqrm/Volume_14_Issue_1_2/Runhardt/
https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/cqrm/Volume_14_Issue_1_2/Waldner/
https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/cqrm/Volume_14_Issue_1_2/Bennett/

Henry Brady, “Causation and Explanation in Social Science,” in Janet Box-

Steffensmeier, Henry Brady, and David Collier, eds., Oxford Handbook of Political
Methodology (Oxford, 2008) pp. 217-270.

Andrew Bennett, Aharon Barth, and Ken Rutherford, “Do we Preach What we Practice? A
survey of Methods in Journals and Graduate Curricula,” PS, July 2003.

Miriam and Colin Elman, “Introduction,” and "Lessons from Lakatos," in Colin and Miriam
Elman, Progress in International Relations Theory: Metrics and Methods of Scientific Change,
MIT Press 2001.

Andrew Bennett, “A Lakatosian Reading of Lakatos: What Can we Salvage from the Hard
Core?,” in Colin and Miriam Elman, Progress in International Relations Theory: Metrics and
Methods of Scientific Change, MIT Press 2001.

Charles Ragin, Redesigning Social Inquiry, pp. 1-10.

Charles Taylor, "Interpretation and the Sciences of Man,” in Paul Rabinow and William
Sullivan, Interpretive Social Science: A Second Look, pp. 33-81.

Richard Lebow and Mark Lichbach, eds., Theory and Evidence in Comparative Politics and
International Relations (Palgrave, 2007).

James Woodward, Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation (Oxford, 2005)

Imre Lakatos, "Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programs," in Lakatos
and Musgrave, eds., Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (Cambridge University Press,
1970) pp. 91-138, 173-180.

Milton Friedman, “The Methodology of Positive Economics,” in Daniel Hausman, ed., The
Philosophy of Economics, pp. 210-238.

Albert Yee, "The Effects of Ideas on Policies," International Organization vol. 50, no. 1
(Winter, 1996) brief excerpt pp. 82-85.

Daniel Little, Microfoundations, chapters 9, 10, and 12, pp. 173-214, 237-256.

David Waldner, chapter in Lebow and Lichbach book.

Robert Jervis, Systems Effects (Princeton, 1997) pp. 29-91, or read Jervis, “Complexity and the
Analysis of Political and Social Life,” Political Science Quarterly Winter 1997/98, pp. 569-594.
Peter Hedstrom and Richard Swedberg, “Social Mechanisms,’ ACTA Sociologica 1996 no. 3,
pp. 281-308.

Margaret Marini and Burton Singer, "Causality in the Social Sciences," in Clifford Clogg, ed.,
Sociological methodology 1988 (American Sociological Association) pp. 347-409.

Jim Mahoney, "Strategies of Causal Inference in Small-n Analysis," Sociological Methods and
Research, 1999.

Alan Zuckerman, “Reformulating Explanatory Standards and Advancing Theory in Comparative

Politics,” in Mark Irving Lichbach and Alan S. Zuckerman, eds., Comparative Politics:
Rationality, Culture, and Structure (Cambridge, 1997) pp. 277-305.

Paul Humphreys, The Chances of Explanation: Causal Explanation in the Social, Medical, and
Physical Sciences

Gabrial Almond and Steve Genco, “Clouds, Clocks and the Study of Politics,” World Politics
July 1977, pp. 489-522.

James Fearon, "Counterfactuals and Hypothesis Testing in Political Science," World Politics
Vol. 43, No. 2 (January, 1991) pp. 169-195.

David Dessler, "Talking Across Disciplines in the Study of Peace and Security: Epistemology
and Pragmatics as Sources of Division in the Social Sciences," working paper, Center for
International Security and Arms Control, Stanford University, June 1996.

Emmanuel Adler, "Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics," European
Journal of International Relations, September 1997.

Timothy McKeown, “The Limitations of ‘Structural’ Theories of Commercial Policy,”

International Organization Vol. 40, No. 1 (Winter, 1986) pp. 43-64. A critique of Milton
Friedman on the “as if” assumption.

Richard Berk, ""Causal inference for sociological data," in Handbook of Sociology edited by
Neil Smelser (Sage, 1988).

Richard Boyd, Philip Gasper, and J. D. Trout, eds., The Philosophy of Science (MIT, 1991)

Thomas Cook and Donald Campbell, Quasi- Experimentation (Rand McNally) pp. 14-36.

David Dessler, "Empirical Research as Puzzle Solving," working draft.

David Dessler, "What's at Stake in the Agent-Structure Debate," in Kratochwil.

Paul Diesing, How Does Social Science Work? (Univ. Of Pittsburgh Press, 1991)
Jon Elster, Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences

Clifford Geertz, "Thick Description" and "Notes on a Balinese Cockfight"

John Gunnell, "Realizing Theory: The Philosophy of Science Revisited," Journal of Politics Vol.
57 no. 4 (November, 1995) pp. 923-940.

Hawthorn, Plausible Worlds

Van Evera, Guide to Methods, pp. 7-48.

Carl Hempel, "The Function of General Laws in History," in his Aspects of Scientific
Explanation

Mark Hoffmann, "Critical theory and the Inter-Paradigm Debate," Millenium Vol. 16, No. 2
(1987) pp. 231-250.

Philip Kitcher, The Advancement of Science: Science Without Legend, Objectivity Without
Illusions (Oxford, 1993)

Lee McIntyre, “Complexity and Social Scientific Laws,” Synthese 97 (1993) pp. 209-27.

Robert Klee, Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (Oxford, 1997)

Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Larry Laudan, Beyond Positivism and Relativism; Progress and its Problems

Daniel Little, Varieties of Social Explanation (Westview, 1991) pp. 13-38, 222-238.

Richard Miller, Fact and Method, 1987

Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery

Clayton Roberts, The Logic of Historical Explanation

Wesley Salmon, Four Decades of Scientific Explanation, 1989

Wesley Salmon, Causality and Explanation, 1998

Andrew Sayer, Method in Social Science: A realist approach (Routledge, 1992) pp. 1-11,
103-117, 121-136, 204-231.

Michael Sobel, "Causal Inference in the Social and Behavior Sciences," in Gerhard Arminger,
Clifford Clogg, and Michael Sobel, eds., Handbook of Statistical Modeling for the Social and
Behavioral Sciences (Plenum Press, 1995) pp.
Arthur Stinchcombe, Constructing Social Theories

Alexander Wendt, "Anarchy Is What States Make of It." International Organization

Peter Winch, The Idea of a Social Science, 1958/1990

William Wohlforth, "Reality Check: Revising Theories of International Politics in Response to

the End of the Cold War," World Politics Vol. 50, No. 4 (July 1998) pp. 650-680.

Richard K. Ashley and R.B.J. Walker, "Speaking the Language of Exile: Dissident Thought in
International Studies,"International Studies Quarterly, September 1990, pp. 259-268.

Jim George and David Campbell, "Patterns of Dissent and the Celebration of Difference: Critical
Social Theory and International Relations," International Studies Quarterly, September 1990,
pp. 269-293

Yosef Lapid, "The Third Debate: On the Prospects of International Theory in a Post-Positivist
Era," International Studies Quarterly, September 1989, pp. 235-254.

Thomas Biersteker, "Critical Reflections on Post-Positivism in International Relations,"

International Studies Quarterly, September 1989, pp. 263-268.

Jim George, "International Relations and the Search for Thinking Space: Another View of the
Third Debate," International Studies Quarterly, September 1989, pp. 269-279.

Jeffrey T. Checkel, "The Constructivist Turn in International Relations Theory," World Politics
January 1998, pp. 324-348.

II) Case Study Methods

Ragin, The Comparative Method, 1987.

Charles Ragin, Rethinking Social Inquiry, pages 13-68, 176-189 (190-212 optional).

Gerardo Munck, "Canons of Research Design in Qualitative Analysis," Studies in Comparative

International Development, Fall 1998.

John Goldthorpe, "Current Issues in Comparative Macrosociology;" Dietrich Reuschemeyer and

John Stephens, "Comparing Historical Sequences-A Powerful Tool for Causal Analysis;" Jack
Goldstone, "Methodological Issues in Comparative Macrosociology;" and John Goldthorpe, "A
Response to the Commentaries," all in Comparative Social Research Vol 16 (1997) pp. 1-26,
55-72, 107-120, and 121- 132, respectively.

Phil Schrodt, “Seven Deadly Sins of Contemporary Quantitative Political Analysis.”

Jason Seawright, Regression-based inference: A Case Study in Failed Causal Assessment,” in
Brady and Collier, Rethinking Social Inquiry, second edition, pp. 247-272.

Stanley Lieberson, "More on the Uneasy Case for Using Mill-Type Methods in Small-N
Comparative Studies," Social Forces June 1994, pp. 1225-1237.

Olav Njolstad, "Learning From History? Case Studies and the Limits to Theory-Building," in
Olav Njolstad, ed., Arms Races: Technological and Political Dynamics (Sage, 1990) pp.
220-246.

Timothy McKeown, "Case Studies and the Statistical World View," International Organization
Vol. 53, No. 1 (Winter, 1999) pp. 161-190.

David Collier, "Translating Quantitative Methods for Qualitative Researchers: The Case of
Selection Bias;" Ronald Rogowski, "The Role of Theory and Anomaly in Social-Scientific
Inference;" and Sidney Tarrow, "Bridging the Quantitative-Qualitative Divide in Political
Science,"in American Political Science Review vol. 89 no. 2 (June, 1995) pp. 4461-474.

APSA- CP: Newsletter of the APSA Organized Section in Comparative Politics, Vo. 9, No. 1
(Winter 1998) articles by David Collier, Tim McKeown, Roger Petersen and John Bowen,
Charles Ragin, and John Stephens.

York Bradshaw and Michael Wallace, “Informing Generality and Explaining Uniqueness: The
Place of Case Studies in Comparative Research,” International Journal of Comparative
Sociology Jan./April 1991, pp. 154-71.

Cook and Campbell, Quasi- Experimental Methods (esp. pp. 37-91, on threats to validity).

Harry Eckstein, "Case Studies and Theory in Political Science," in Fred Greenstein and Nelson
Polsby, eds., Handbook of Political Science (Addison-Wesley, 1975) vol. 7 pp. 79-138.

John Frendreis, "Explanation of Variation and Detection of Covariation: The Purpose and Logic
of Comparative Analysis,"Comparative Political Studies July 1983, pp. 255-272.

Alexander George, "Case Studies and Theory Development," in Paul Lauren, ed., Diplomacy:
New Approaches in Theory, History, and Policy (Free Press, 1979) pp. 43-68.

Alexander George and Tim McKeown, "Case Studies and Theories of Organizational decision
Making," in Robert Coulam and Richard Smith, eds., Advances in Information Processing in
Organizations (Greenwich, CT. JAI Press, 1985) pp. 43-68.

Thomas Homer-Dixon, "Strategies for Studying Causation in Complex Ecological Political

Systems," American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1995, pp. 1-12.
Colin Howson and Peter Urbach, Scientific Reasoning: A Bayesian Approach (2d edition, Open
Court, 1993).

Deborah Mayo, Error and the Growth of Experimental Knowledge (Chicago, 1996).

Arend Lijphart, "The Comparable Cases Strategy in Comparative Research," Comparative

Political Studies, July 1975, pp. 133-177.

Adam Przeworski and Henry Teune, The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry (NY, Wiley,
1970).

Charles Ragin, "Comparative Sociology and Comparative Method," International Journal of

Comparative Sociology vol. 22 nos. 1-2 (March-June, 1981, pp. 102-120.

Neil Smelser, "Methodology of Comparative Analysis," in his Essays in Sociological

Interpretation, (1968), pp. 62-75

Charles Tilly, "Means and Ends of Comparison in Macrosociology," Comparative Social

Research Vol. 16, 1997, pp. 43-53.

"The Role of Theory in Comparative Politics: A Symposium," World Politics October 1995,
Essays by Atul Kohli, Peter Evans, Peter Katzenstein, and Theda Skocpol pp. 1-15, 37-49.
Theda Skocpol and Margaret Somers, "The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial
Inquiry," Comparative Studies in Society and History ,Vol. 22 (1980) pp. 156-173.

Elizabeth Nichols, "Skocpol on Revolution" Comparative Analysis vs. Historical Conjuncture,"

and rejoinder by Theda Skocpol, "Analyzing Causal Configurations in History," Comparative
Social Research Vol. 9, 1986, pp. 163-186, 187-194.

III) Critiques and Justifications of Case Studies and Alternative Methods

Chris Achen and Duncan Snidal, "Rational Deterrence Theory and Comparative Case Studies,"
Alexander George and Richard Smoke, "Deterrence and Foreign Policy," and George Downs,
"The Rational Deterrence Debate," in World Politics vol. 41, no. 2 (January, 1989) pp. 143-182,
225-237.

Henry Brady, "Symposium on Designing Social Inquiry," The Political Methodologist vol. 6,
no. 2 (Spring 1995) pp. 11-19.

Donald Green and Ian Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory, (Yale, 1994) pp. TBD.

Jeffrey Friedman, ed., The Rational Choice Controversy (Yale, 1996) pp. TBD.

Donald Campbell, "Degrees of Freedom and the Case Study," Comparative Political Studies 8
no. 2 (July 1975), pp. 178-193.
Phil Schrodt, “Beyond the Linear Frequentist Orthodoxy,” Political Analysis.

Doug Dion, "Evidence and Inference in the Comparative Case Study," Comparative Politics.

John Ferejohn and Debra Satz, "Unification, Universalism, and Rational Choice Theory,"
Critical Review vol. 9, no.s 1-2 (Winter-Spring 1995) pp. 71-84.

Paul Holland, "Statistics and Causal Inference," and critiques in December 1986 Journal of the
American Statistical Association.

Stanley Lieberson, "Small N"s and big conclusions," in Charles Ragin and Howard Becker,
What is a case, pp. 105-118.

"Symposium on Methodological Foundations of the Study of International Conflict,"

International Studies Quarterly June 1985 pp. 119-154.

James Lee Ray, Democracies and International Conflict, pp. 158-198 ("Case Studies, Covering
Laws, and Causality") and pp. 158-198 ("The Fashoda Crisis and the Spanish-American War").

IV Case Selection

Aaron Rapport, Hard Thinking about Hard and Easy Cases in Security Studies, Security Studies
24:3 (2015), 431-465.

Richard A. Nielsen, “Case Selection via Matching,” Sociological Methods and Research 45:3
(2016) pp. 569–597

Nicholas Weller, Jeb Barnes, “Pathway Analysis and the Search for Causal Mechanisms,”
Sociological Methods and Research 45:3 (2016) pp. 424-457

Jason Seawright, “The Case for Selecting Cases That Are Deviant or Extreme on the
Independent Variable, “Sociological Methods and Research 45:3 (2016) 493-525

Carsten Q. Schneider, Ingo Rohlfing, “Case Studies Nested in Fuzzy-set QCA on Sufficiency:
Formalizing Case Selection and Causal Inference,” Sociological Methods and Research 45:3
(2016) 526-568

Michael Herron and Kevin Quinn, “A Careful Look at Modern Case Selection Methods,”
Sociological Methods and Research 45:3
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0049124114547053

Ryan Saylor, Why Causal Mechanisms and Process Tracing Should Alter Case Selection
Guidance, Sociological Methods and Research June 2018
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0049124118769109?journalCode=smra
Van Evera, Guide to Methodology, pp. 77-88.

Gary Goertz, “Statistical Multimethod and Case Selection,” “Case Studies, Causal
Mechanisms, and Selecting Cases: Part I,” and “Case Studies, Causal Mechanisms, and
Selecting Cases, Part II: Necessary Conditions.” Manuscripts (2013).

James Lee Ray, Democracies and International Conflict, pp. 158-174.

David Collier and James Mahoney, "Insights and Pitfalls: Selection Bias in Qualitative
Research," World Politics vol. 49, no. 1 (October, 1996) pp. 56-91.

Thomas Cook and Donald Campbell, Quasi-Experimentation, pp. 37-39, 50-91.

Theodore Meckstroth, "'Most Different Systems' and 'Most Similar Systems:' A Study in the
Logic of Comparative Inquiry," Comparative Political Studies July 1975, pp. 133-177.

Sidney Tarrow, “Expanding Paired Comparison: A Modest Proposal,” APSA-CP Newsletter

Summer 1999: 9-12.

David Collier, "The Comparative Method," in Ada Finifter, ed., Political Science: the State of
the Discipline II (Washington, D.C.: American Political Science Association, 1993), pp.
105-119.

Van Evera, Guide to Methodology, pp. 49-76.

Colin Elman, John Gerring, James Mahoney, “Putting the Quant Into the Qual,”
Sociological Methods and Research 45:3 (2016) pp. 375–391

John Gerring and Lee Cojocaru, “Selecting Cases for Intensive Analysis: A Diversity of Goals
and Methods.’ Sociological Methods and Research 45:3 (2016)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0049124116631692

Concepts and Measurement

Optional Readings:

John Gerring, “What Makes a Concept Good?,” Polity Spring 1999: 357-93.

Gary Goertz, “ A Checklist for Constructing, Evaluating, and Using Concepts or Quantitative
Measures.”

Carsten Q. Schneider and Claudius Wagemann, Set‐Theoretic Methods for the Social
Sciences (Cambridge University Press, 2012

Ragin, Redefining Social Inquiry, pp. 71-105.

Robert Adcock and David Collier, “Democracy and Dichotomies,” Annual Review of Political
Science, Vol. 2, 1999, pp. 537-565.

David Collier and Steven Levitsky, "Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in
Comparative Research," World Politics, Vol. 49, No. 3 (April 1997) pp. 430-451.

David Collier, “Data, Field Work, and Extracting New Ideas at Close Range,” APSA -CP
Newsletter Winter 1999 pp. 1-6.

Gerardo Munck and Jay Verkuilen, “Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating
Alternative Indices,” Comparative Political Studies Feb. 2002, pp. 5-34.

Giovanni Sartori, "Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics,"American Political Science

Review, December 1970.

David Collier and James Mahon, "Conceptual Stretching Revisited: Adapting Categories in
Comparative Analysis," APSR December 1993, pp. 845-855.

James Mahoney, Erin Kimball, and Kendra Koivu, The Causal Logic of Historical Explanation,
manuscript, Northwestern University. (Pk) (Er - updated version posted 12.20.07)

Typological Theory

Gary Goertz and James Mahoney, A Tale of Two Cultures, pp. 161-171.

Ragin, Redesigning Social Inquiry pages 109-146.

Bear Braumoeller, “Analyzing Interactions: Four Alternative Models,” Qualitative &

Multi‐Method Research 12(1) (2014).

Daniel Little, Microfoundations, Method, and Causation Chapter 11, pp. 215-236.

Barbara Geddes, "How the Cases You Choose Affect the Answers You Get: Selection Bias in
Comparative Politics," Political Analysis vol. 2 (1990).

David Collier, James Mahoney, and Jason Seawright, “Claiming Too Much: Warnings about
Selection Bias,” chapter 6 in Brady and Collier.

Process Tracing

Tasha Fairfield and Andrew Charman, “The Bayesian Foundations of Iterative Research in
Qualitative Social Science: A Dialogue with the Data,” Perspectives on Politics 2018:
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/89261/1/Fairfield_The_Bayesian_foundations_Accepted.pdf
Mahoney, James. 2012. “The Logic of Process-Tracing Tests in the Social
Sciences.” Sociological Methods & Research 41 (4): 570–97

David Waldner, “Process Tracing and Causal Mechanisms.” In Harold Kincaid, ed., The
Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Social Science (Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 65‐84.

Ragin, Redesigning Social Inquiry, pp. 147-175.

Gary Goertz and James Mahoney, A Tale of Two Cultures, pp. 87-126.

James Mahoney, “The Logic of Process Tracing Tests in the Social Sciences,” Sociological
Methods and Research, 41:570-597 (November 2012).

Adam Przeworski, contribution to “The Role of Theory in Comparative Politics: A

Symposium,” World Politics October 1995 pp. 16-21.

Jack Levy, “Necessary Conditions in Case Studies: Preferences, Constraints, and Choices in July
1914,” in Gary Goertz and Harvey Starr, eds., Necessary Conditions (Rowman and Littlefield,
2002), pp. 113-145.

George and Bennett, CSTD, chapter 9.

Gary Goertz and Jack Levy, “Causal Explanation, Necessary Conditions, and Case Studies: The
Causes of World War I,” manuscript, Dec. 2002.

Richard Ned Lebow, “Contingency, Catalysts, and International System Change,” Political
Science Quarterly 115 (4) pp. 591-616.

Stephen Brooks and William Wohlforth, “Power, Globalization, and the End of the Cold War:
Reevaluating a Landmark Case for Ideas,” International Security (Winter, 2000-2001) pp. 5-53.

Andrew Bennett, “The Guns that Didn’t Smoke: Ideas and the Soviet Non-Use of Force in
1989.”

David Waldner, State Building and Late Development (Cornell, 1998) pp. 230-240.

Rohlfing, Ingo. 2014. “Comparative Hypothesis Testing Via Process-Tracing.” Sociological

Methods & Research 43(4): 606–42

Hall, Peter A. 2013. “Tracing the Progress of Process-Tracing.” European Political

Science 12 (1): 20–30

Zaks, Sherry. 2017. “Relationships Among Rivals (RAR): A Framework for Analyzing

Contending Hypotheses in Process-Tracing.” Political Analysis 25 (3): 344–62

Bennett and Checkel, Process Tracing, appendix.

Field Research

Diana Kapiszewski, Lauren M. MacLean, and Benjamin L. Read, “Interviews, Oral

Histories, and Focus Groups” in Field Research in Political Science: Practices and Principles
(Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). 

Soledad Loaeza, Randy Stevenson, and Devra C. Moehler.  2005.  “Symposium:  Should
Everyone Do Fieldwork?” APSA-CP 16(2) 2005:  8-18. 

Layna Mosley, ed., Interview Research in Political Science, Cornell University Press, 2013.

Hope Harrison, “Inside the SED Archives,” CWIHP Bulletin

Ian Lustick, "History, Historiography, and Political Science: Multiple Historical Records and the
Problem of Selection Bias," APSR September 1996, pp. 605-618.

Symposium on interview methods in political science in PS: Political Science and Politics
(December, 2002), articles by Beth Leech (“Asking Questions: Sampling and Completing Elite
Interviews”), Kenneth Goldstein (“Getting in the Door: Sampling and Completing Elite
Interviews”), Joel Aberbach and Bert Rockman (“Conducting and Coding Elite Interviews”),
Laura Woliver (“Ethical Dilemmas in Personal Interviewing”), and Jeffrey Barry (“Validity and
Reliability Issues in Elite Interviewing), pp. 665-682.

Diana Kapiszewski, Lauren M. MacLean, and Benjamin L. Read, “A Historical and

Empirical Overview of Field Research in the Discipline” Chapter 2 in Field Research in Political
Science: Practices and Principles (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

Elisabeth Wood, “The Ethical Challenges of Field Research in Conflict Zones,”

Qualitative Sociology 29(3) (September 2006):  373‐386.

Marc Trachtenberg, The Craft of International History (Princeton University Press,

2006), Appendix I and Appendix II. Available at
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/trachtenberg/methbk/AppendixI.html
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/trachtenberg/methbk/AppendixII.html

Christopher Barrett and Jeffrey Cason, Overseas Research: A Practical Guide, (Johns Hopkins,
1997), pp. 90-105.

Frank Bonilla, “Survey Techniques,” in Robert Ward et. Al., Studying Politics Abroad (Little,
Brown, 1964), pp. 134-52.

Stephen Devereaux and John Hoddinott, “Issues in Data Collection,” in Stephen Devereaux and
John Hoddinott, eds., Fieldwork in Developing Countries (Lynne-Reiner, 1993) pp. 25-40.
Selections from Jaber Gubrium and James Holstein, eds., Handbook of Interview Research
(Sage, 2002): Carol Warren, “Qualitative Interviewing,” pp. 83-101; John Johnson, “In-Depth
Intervewing,” pp. 103-119; Patricia Adler and Peter Adler, “The Reluctant Respondent,” pp.
515-535; Teresa Odendahl and Aileen Shaw, “Interviewing Elites,” pp. 299-316; and Anne
Ryen, “Cross-Cultural Interviewing,” pp. 335-54.

Marc Trachtenberg, The Craft of International History (Princeton, 2006), esp. chapt. 5 on
working with documents.

Multimethod Research

Mario Small, 2011. How to Conduct a Mixed Methods Study: Recent Trends in a Rapidly
Growing Literature, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 37: 57-86

Peter Lorentzen, M. Taylor Fravel, and Jack Paine. “Qualitative Investigation of Theoretical
Models: The Value of Process Tracing.” Journal of Theoretical Politics. 2016
file:///Users/home/Downloads/ProcessTracing%20and%20Formal%20Models%20-%20JTP
%20(1).pdf

Kenneth Schultz, Democracy and Coercive Diplomacy (Cambridge, 2001) pp. 1-20, 120-122,
163-175.

Natural experiment on Jesuit missions and education levels

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/11/09/years-after-jesuits-were-expelled-towns-
near-their-missions-still-have-higher-education-incomes/?utm_term=.0e2ec4d474f5

Cliff Kuang, “Can A.I. be Taught to Explain itself?,” Nov. 21, 2017, New York Times, at
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/magazine/can-ai-be-taught-to-explain-itself.html?_r=0

Rudra Sil, “The Division of Labor in Social Science Research: Unified Methodology or
‘Organic Solidarity,’” Polity Vol. 32, no. 4 (Summer, 2000) pp. 499-531.

Charles Ragin, "Turning the Tables: How Case-Oriented Research Challenges Variable-Oriented
Research, " Comparative Social Research Vol. 16, 1997, pp. 27-42.

David Dessler, "Beyond Correlations: Toward a Causal Theory of War," International Studies
Quarterly vol. 35 no. 3 (September, 1991), pp. 337-355.

Yee, "Effects of Ideas on Policies," pp. 68-82.

Vaughn McKim and Stephen Turner, eds., Causality in Crisis? Statistical Methods and the
Search for Causal Knowledge in the Social Sciences (University of Notre Dame, 1997) pp. 1-19.

Robert Powell, In the Shadow of Power, pp. 23-39.

Charles Ragin and David Zaret, "Theory and Method in Comparative Research: Two Strategies,"
in Social Forces, Vol. 61, No. 3 (March 1983), pp. 731-754.

Alexander George and Andrew Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development, Chapter 2.

KKV, Designing Social Inquiry, pp. 55-63, 91-95.

Robert Bates, Avner Greif, Margaret Levi, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, and Barry Weingast,
Analytic Narratives, pp. 3-18; reviews by David Dessler (International Studies Review 2000 2
(3) 176-179) and Andrew Bennett (Journal of Politics August 2001 63 (3) 978-980).

Ingo Rohlfing, critique of Lieberman, forthcoming.

Counterfactuals, natural experiments

Frank Harvey, “President Al Gore and the 2003 Iraq War: A Counterfactual Test of
Conventional ‘W’isdom, Canadian Journal of Political Science 45(1) (March 2012): 1‐32.
Online access also includes Supplementary Material: Appendix 1, Appendix 2, and
Bibliography for Appendices: www.journals.cambridge.org/cjp/S0008423911000904sup001.

Mildenberger paper.

Runhardt paper.

Richard Ned Lebow, “Contingency, Catalysts, and Nonlinear Change: The Origins of
World War I.” In Gary Goertz and Jack S. Levy, eds., Explaining War and Peace: Case Studies
and Necessary Condition Counterfactuals (Routledge, 2007), pp. 85‐111.

Frank Harvey, Explaining the Iraq War: Counterfactual Theory, Logic, and Evidence
(Cambridge University Press, 2012), Chapters 1 and 10.  

Richard Ned Lebow, “What’s So Different About a Counterfactual?,” World Politics July 1999:
550-85.

Jack S. Levy, “Counterfactuals and Case Studies.” In Janet Box‐Steffensmeier, Henry

Brady, and David Collier, eds., Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology (Oxford University
Press, 2008), pp. 627‐644.  

Philip Tetlock and Aaron Belkin, eds., Counterfactual Thought Experiments, chapters 1, 12.

Path Dependency
Bennett and Elman, Complex Causal Relations and Case Study Methods: The Example of
Path Dependence Political Analysis Volume 14, Issue 3 (Special Issue on Causal
Complexity and Qualitative Methods) Summer 2006 , pp. 250-267

James Mahoney, “Strategies of Causal Assessment in Comparative-Historical Analysis,” in

Mahoney and Rueschemeyer, Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences
(Cambridge, 2003).

Ruth Berins Collier and David Collier, Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the
Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America (Princeton, 1991) pp. 27-39.

Mahoney and Rueschemeyer, “Comparative-Historical Analysis: Achievements and Agendas,”

in their Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences (Cambridge, 2003).

Paul Pierson, “Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics,” American
Political Science Review, June 2000, pp.251-268.

Ira Katznelson, "Structure and Configuration in Comparative Politics," in Mark Lichbach, and
Alan Zuckerman, eds., Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure (Cambridge,
1997) pp. 81-111.

Kathleeen Thelen, “How Institutions Evolve: Insights from Comparative-Historical Analysis,” in

Mahoney and Rueschemeyer, Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences
(Cambridge, 2003).

David Collier, "Comparative-Historical Analysis: Where Do We Stand?" APSA- CP Newsletter,

Vol. 9, No. 2 (Summer, 1998) pp. 1-5.

James Mahoney, "Nominal, Ordinal, and Narrative Appraisal in Macro-Causal Analysis,"

American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 104, No.3 (January 1999).

Thomas Ertman, Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early
Modern Europe, pp. 1-34, 317-334.

Gregory Luebbert, "Social Foundations of Political Order in Interwar Europe," World Politics
July 1987.

V) Additional Examples of Case Study Research

International Relations

Graham Allison, Essence of Decision

Randall Schweller, "Domestic Structure and Preventive War: Are Democracies More Pacific?,"
World Politics Jan. 1992.
Stephen R. Rock, Why Peace Breaks Out

Stephen R. Rock, Appeasement in International Politics

Brent Sterling, "Policy Choice During Limited War: Using a Risk-Based Argument to Account
for the Direction of War Aims and the Level of Means," Ph.D. Thesis, Georgetown University,
1998, pp. TBA (good example of typological theory).

Alexander George and Richard Smoke, Deterrence in American Foreign Policy

Bruce Jentleson, Opportunities Missed, Opportunities Seized: Preventive Diplomacy in the

Post- Cold War World

Helen Milner, Interests, Institutions, and Information: Domestic Politics and International
Relations

Steve Walt, The Origins of Alliances

Steve Weber, Cooperation and Discord in U.S.-Soviet Arms Control

Comparative Politics: From an excellent bibliography of qualitative research compiled by

David Collier:

Brian Downing, The Military Revolution and Political Change, pp. 1-18, 239-55
Peter Evans, Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation
Jack Goldstone, Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World
Jeff Goodwin, States and Revolutionary Movements
Peter Hall, Governing the Economy: The Politics of State Intervention in Britain and France, pp.
3-22, 229-284.
Gregory Leubbert, Liberalism, Fascism, or Social Democracy (related to his article above)
Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation
Ian Lustick, Unsettled States, Disupted Lands: Britain and Ireland, France and Algeria, Israel
and the West Bank- Gaza, pp. 1-51, 439-53
Ann Shola Orloff, The Politics of Pensions: A Comparative Analysis of Britain, Canada, and
the United States
Paul Pierson, Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of
Retrenchment
Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work
Dietrich Reuschemeyer and Evelyn and John Stephens, Capitalist Development and Democracy
Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions
Hendrik Spruyt, The Sovereign State and Its Competitors: An Analysis of Systems Change
Charles Tilly, The Formation of National States in Western Europe
David Waldner, State Building and Late Development
Timothy Wickham-Crowley, Guerillas and Revolution in Latin America
V) Readings on Concept Formation, Measurement, Uses and Limits of Archival, Interview,
and Other Data Sources

Robert K. Yin, Case Study Research

Taylor, Introduction to Qualitative Research

James Maxwell, Qualitative Research Design

A. Strauss and J. Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research

A. Strauss, Qualitative Analysis

Lewis Dexter, Elite and Specialized Interviewing

Gerome Murphy, Getting the Facts (on interview techniques)