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Capturing causation in political science: the perspective of research design

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2021

Luigi Curini Open the ORCID record for Luigi Curini [Opens in a new window]  and
Alessia Damonte Open the ORCID record for Alessia Damonte [Opens in a new window]
Luigi Curini
Affiliation:
Social and Political Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
Alessia Damonte*
Affiliation:
Social and Political Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: alessia.damonte@unimi.it
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Abstract

In the last decades, ‘research design’ has become a strategic topic across political science. An emerging discourse relies on it to encompass paradigmatic oppositions and cultivate a pluralist approach to causation. As an introduction to the special issue on the topic, we offer an outline of the roles that the discipline recognizes to design in its relation to models and contend that, in a time of fascination for predictors, political science pluralism allows for balancing interpretability and validity of findings at once.

Keywords

Causal inferencecausal modelpolitical scienceresearch design
Type
Research Article
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , Volume 51 , Special Issue 2: Capturing Causation: Issues of Research Design in Political Science , July 2021 , pp. 157 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Società Italiana di Scienza Politica

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