Acknowledgments

In important ways, this book owes an intellectual debt to IPSA’s Research Committee on Concepts and Methods,Footnote ¹ home to many scholars hooked on the power of concepts. The Committee, founded in the early 1970s, has grown up alongside Collier’s research. Collier himself has helped to shape the Committee and its activities, and it was during Elkins’ tenure as Committee Chair that this volume was launched.

We are fortunate for the book to have landed in the hands of very capable and thoughtful colleagues at Cambridge University Press. Our collaborators there have been consistently generous in their efforts to keep the project moving along. Robert Dreesen, our editor, saw promise in the project from the start and has provided valuable assistance and encouragement at many points. Sable Gravesandy repeatedly tackled complex issues of coordination.

We thank Rachel Fudge for her remarkable contributions in managing many aspects of the book’s compilation. These contributions included dealing with major changes in the scope of the volume – involving the addition of fourteen research notes as a central component of the book. Her contributions also involved editing and coordinating the chapters, wrestling with dozens of figures and tables, and bringing the chapters together as a completed manuscript.

Leslie Jackson brought her talent for managing information flows to coordinating the research notes and assisting David in keeping his parts of the project moving. Elio Arturo Farina skillfully refined and reformatted the figures and tables. At the University of Texas, Lauren Esparza, Ava Mouton-Johnston, Chloé Ramirez, and Kiley Thomas provided indispensable research assistance.

Ruth Berins Collier offered incisive suggestions at many steps in the project, and Patti Smolian repeatedly applied her editing skills to improving the text. The exchange of comments among the contributors to the volume is likewise greatly appreciated, especially those from Robert Adcock, Sarah Chartock, and Danielle N. Lussier.

Our two institutions offered significant financial and intellectual support for the project over the years. The University of California, Berkeley has been the setting for much of the ideation in this book; for Elkins in his formative years and Collier throughout his career. We thank the Department of Political Science and the Center for the Study of Political Development at Berkeley for financial support. The Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin has likewise been generous and supportive of the project. A book “takes a village,” as they say, and those at Berkeley and Austin have proved to be vital.