Case Study and Theory in Political Science

Eckstein, Harry; Greenstein, Fred I.; Polsby, Nelson W.

doi:10.4135/9780857024367.d11

Cited by 631 publications

(614 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

581

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…On the other hand, when our understanding is generally very good, a few cases which combine a set of circumstances that we believed could not exist or, more realistically, were believed to be highly unlikely can alert us to overlooked phenomena. Some observations are more important than others and there sometimes are "critical cases" (Eckstein 1975). This point is not new to qualitative methodologists because there is an implicit (and all too rarely 34 R. A. Fisher, one of the fathers of modern statistics and the experimental method, was a notable exception.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Neyman— Rubin Model of Causal Inference and Estimation Via Matching Methods

Sekhon

2009

The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article presents a detailed discussion of the Neyman-Rubin model of causal inference. Additionally, it describes under what conditions ‘matching’ approaches can lead to valid inferences, and what kinds of compromises sometimes have to be made with respect to generalizability to ensure valid causal inferences. Moreover, the article summarizes Mill's first three canons and shows the importance of taking chance into account and comparing conditional probabilities when chance variations cannot be ignored. The significance of searching for causal mechanisms is often overestimated by political scientists and this sometimes leads to an underestimate of the importance of comparing conditional probabilities. The search for causal mechanisms is probably especially useful when working with observational data. Machine learning algorithms can be used against the matching problem.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Neyman— Rubin Model of Causal Inference and Estimation Via Matching Methods

Sekhon

2009

The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Building From the Ground Upmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social scientific analysis is also dedicated to explaining and understanding the killings in the broader context of processes of rational, structural and cultural theories; 46 revolution, counter-revolution, and civil war; 47 ideological and religious confrontation; and the role of the US in supporting the government of El Salvador at the time; while methodologically the case is framed in terms of being a typical instance, a 'most likely' case, or 'least likely' case (see below). 48 Beyond the larger explanatory aim and methodological value, the case itself is a good example of the many challenges facing those seeking to count human rights violations and provide the best statistical evidence for subsequent analysis. The 'event' itself was comprised of several 'acts' that were committed by several 'perpetrators' against several 'victims'.…”

Section: Building From the Ground Upmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rigorous Morality: Norms, Values, and the Comparative Politics of Human Rights

Landman¹

2016

hrq

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper argues that there is a strong role for empirical analysis to be used to address fundamental normative questions. Using human rights as an example, the article shows that the evolution of the international regime of human rights provides a standard against which country level performance can be both judged and explained through the application of empirical approaches in comparative politics. It argues further that different kinds of human rights measures (events, standards, surveys, and official statistics) and comparative methods (large-N, small-N and single-country studies) offer systematic ways in which to map, explain, and understand the variation in human rights abuse around the world. In this way, the comparative politics of human rights is prime example of how the 'is' of the world can be used to address the 'ought' of international human rights theory, philosophy, and law. The example of human rights analysis in comparative politics shows a strong role for value-based and problem-based research that remains systematic in its approach while at the same producing outputs that are of public value.1 IntroductionIn late 1989, I was working in the photographic laboratory in the Lauinger Library at Georgetown University when a Jesuit Priest arrived one morning with a roll of film that he wanted us to develop. He asked that we make ten copies of the pictures on the roll. In those pre-digital days, my boss and I stood in the darkroom shaking the can, drying the film, and then printing the pictures. We were not prepared for what we were about to see. The pictures had been smuggled out of El Salvador and were of the scene at the Pastoral Centre of José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA) where six Jesuit priests along with a maid and her daughter were killed. 1 The images that confronted us were not what was reported in the mainstream press (i.e. that they were simply shot). Rather, we saw the brutal end results not only of a 'simple' set of extra-judicial killings, but the result of a manner of killing that has left an indelible mark on me ever since. The official truth commission in El Salvador presented strong evidence that not only had the military given the orders to carry out the murders but that the officers involved also engaged in a cover up. 2 The facts of the case and the images that I developed those many years ago illustrate a basic point about the enduring capacity of human beings to do horrible things to one another, which for me led to the deontological conclusion that what I saw was morally wrong and which has galvanised my commitment to a lifetime of human rights research.In 2000, I found myself in João Pessoa, the Eastern most tip of South America for lectures and a field visit to the contested countryside in the state of Paraíba, which is dominated by agriculture and the production of leather. Our field visit was to the sugar cane fields to the West of João Pessoa to meet with officials of the Comissão Pastoral da Terra (Pastoral Land Commission, CPT) and activists f...

show abstract

“…Dubé and Paré [2003], Eckstein [2000], Myers et al [1997] all indicated the abilities of the case study method to capture the wider context of the research phenomenon and to study the research case from multiple perspectives.…”

Section: Adopting Multiple Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying Enterprise Architecture to Business Networks

Bakhtiyari¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Case Study and Theory in Political Science

Cited by 631 publications

References 0 publications

The Neyman— Rubin Model of Causal Inference and Estimation Via Matching Methods

The Neyman— Rubin Model of Causal Inference and Estimation Via Matching Methods

Rigorous Morality: Norms, Values, and the Comparative Politics of Human Rights

Applying Enterprise Architecture to Business Networks

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About