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Complex Causal Relations and Case Study Methods: The Example of Path Dependence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2017

Andrew Bennett  and
Colin Elman
Andrew Bennett
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Arizona State University, Box 873902, Tempe, AZ 85287-3902. e-mail: bennetta@georgetown.edu
Colin Elman
Affiliation:
Department of Government, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057. e-mail: colin.elman@asu.edu (corresponding author)
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Abstract

This article discusses the application of qualitative methods in analyzing causal complexity. In particular, the essay reviews how process tracing and systematic case comparisons can address path-dependent explanations. The article unpacks the concept of path dependence and its component elements of causal possibility, contingency, closure of alternatives, and constraints to the current path. The article then reviews four strengths that case studies bring to the study of path dependence: offering a detailed and holistic analysis of sequences in historical cases, being suitable for the study of rare events, facilitating the search for omitted variables that might lie behind contingent events, and allowing for the study of interaction effects within one or a few cases.

Type
Research Article
Information
Political Analysis , Volume 14 , Issue 3: Special Issue on Causal Complexity and Qualitative Methods , Summer 2006 , pp. 250 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Political Methodology 

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