CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH STRATEGIES

3.1 Case studies. The case for case studies. Multi-method approach. Thick description. Types of case study: representative, prototypical, deviant, exemplary, critical (pp. 43-46).

3.2 Advantages of comparison: learning about other governments, improving our classifications of politics, testing hypotheses and some potential for prediction and control (pp. 46-48).

3.3 Pitfalls of comparison: varied meanings across cultures, globalization, too few countries, selection bias (pp. 48-50).

3.4 Qualitative comparisons (small N studies). A success story. Selecting similar or contrasting cases. Most similar and most different designs (pp. 50-51).

3.5 Quantitative analysis. Dependent, intervening and intervening variables. A regression example. Outliers. Spurious correlation and the direction of causation (pp. 51-53).

3.6 Historical analysis: quarrying for cases. Analytic narratives. Path dependence and process tracing. Critical junctures, sequencing and slow-moving causes (pp.53-66).

<< back to Chapter notes list