Christopher J. Clarke · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2023
Abstract A good definition of process tracing should highlight what is distinctive about process tracing as a methodology of causal inference. Eight criteria are used to define process tracing in the methodological literature, and I dismiss all eight criteria as unhelpful (some because they are too restrictive, and others because they are vacuous). In place of these criteria, I propose four alternative criteria, and I draw a distinction between process tracing for the ultimate aim of testing a start–end hypothesis versus process tracing as an ultimate end in itself. Although it is clear enough how the former method works, there is still much methodological work to be done in understanding the latter method as a distinctive method of causal inference.
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Palier, Bruno · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2019
1ères lignes : Le process tracing est une méthode qui vise à analyser les processus et séquences de décisions et d’événements qui mènent à une situation, un résultat que le chercheur ou la chercheuse souhaite expliquer (Palier et Trampusch, 2018). Cette méthode a pour ambition de trouver ou valider l’existence de mécanismes causaux qui relient les variables explicatives aux variables expliquées : elle vise à analyser les processus qui rattachent les variables indépendantes aux variables dépendantes, ce qui se passe entre X et Y (Trampusch et Palier, 2016). Elle peut faire l’objet de pratiques inductives ou déductives de recherche. Au-delà des variantes, il est possible de distinguer un certain nombre de traits communs et de bonnes pratiques. Il s’agit d’une méthode qui permet de rendre compte de processus multi-causaux, et dans lesquels le temps et le contexte sont causaux et doivent faire partie intégrante de l’explication des phénomènes politiques analysés.
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J. van der Pligt · UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) · 1995
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2023
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Reilly, Rosemary C. · Spectrum Research Repository (Concordia University) · 2010
Process tracing is a data analysis method for identifying, validating, and testing causal mechanisms within case studies in a specific, theoretically informed way. This entry discusses its application for case study research.
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Andrew Bennett, Jeffrey T. Checkel · Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2014
Why did the Cold War end peacefully, without a shot being fired? Why did some European democracies survive the interwar period while others were replaced by fascist dictatorships? In the post-Cold War world, civil conflicts have replaced interstate war as the dominant form of organized political violence, with rebel groups – instead of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) – as a key focus of both policy and scholarship. Yet what makes such groups tick? Why do some engage in wanton killing and sexual violence while others do not? The European Union is a unique experiment in governance "beyond the nation state," but how are its supranational governance structures being crafted and with what effect on the ordinary citizens of Europe?
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James Johnson · 2024
Subject International Relations Security Studies Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
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Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2014
Advances in qualitative methods and recent developments in the philosophy of science have led to an emphasis on explanation via reference to causal mechanisms. This book argues that the method known as process tracing is particularly well suited to developing and assessing theories about such mechanisms. The editors begin by establishing a philosophical basis for process tracing - one that captures mainstream uses while simultaneously being open to applications by interpretive scholars. Equally important, they go on to establish best practices for individual process-tracing accounts - how micro to go, when to start (and stop), and how to deal with the problem of equifinality. The contributors then explore the application of process tracing across a range of subfields and theories in political science. This is an applied methods book which seeks to shrink the gap between the broad assertion that 'process tracing is good' and the precise claim 'this is an instance of good process tracing'.
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2018
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Keith Dowding · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2023
Abstract Process tracing systematizes qualitative historical description to enable inferences about token causal processes. Contrary to some claims it does not provide a rival account of causation to large-n studies rather it answers questions posed at a different level of detail. Large-n and small-n analyses pose questions at different levels of analysis. By drawing an analogy with the external and internal validity of experiments we can view many historical disputes in terms of what causal aspects are foregrounded (as a “cause”) and what backgrounded (as “background conditions”). Process tracing examines detailed processes within type-mechanistic explanation. While it can demonstrate that specific mechanisms do not apply to the case under consideration, case studies on their own cannot test theoretically generated mechanistic claims, nor empirical generalization. Debates over what constitutes critical junctures usually concern the level of appropriate explanation and what aspects in a causal account are to be foregrounded.
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Raimondo, Estelle · SPIRE - Sciences Po Institutional REpository · 2023
Process tracing is a theory-based evaluation approach. Based on the formulation of a process theory-of-change, it collects evidence to ascertain how the intervention unfolded in a single case and whether it plausibly contributed to change in outcomes. Often described as a qualitative method, process tracing can in fact rely on a diversity of qualitative and quantitative methods. Particularly useful to evaluate complex interventions, it addresses the questions of “under what conditions, how, and why” an intervention worked, rather than how much impact it produced.
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J. van der Pligt · UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) · 1995
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Hilde Van Meegdenburg · Leiden Repository (Leiden University) · 2022
This contribution develops process tracing (PT) as a method for Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). It explains what it takes to conduct PT, trace a mechanism, and draw conclusions on that basis. Importantly, I lay out an analyticist approach to PT that is amendable to more actor-centered and interpretivist studies. This approach treats mechanisms as akin to Weberian ideal types: abstract constructs that are adduced from multiple concrete, contextually embedded, and largely idiosyncratic instantiations. This creates space for agency and contingency and allows us to (a) study how a mechanism or concatenation of mechanisms led to a particular outcome; (b) assess how the mechanism(s) functioned in a given context; and (c) abstract from the specific instantiation(s) more general propositions about foreign policy making. In an empirical example of state employment of Private Military and Security Contractors, drawing on interpretivist and narrative-based understandings of FPA, I illustrate what this means in practice.
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Gurkan, Seda, Rietveld, Jochem · Dépôt institutionnel de l'Université libre de Bruxelles (Université Libre de Bruxelles) · 2019
info:eu-repo/semantics/inPress
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Palier, Bruno · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2019
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Jeffrey T. Checkel · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · 2008
‘This argument is too structural. It’s under-determined and based on unrealistic assumptions. Moreover, it tells us little about how the world really works.’ Among many scholars – the present author included – this is an oft-heard set of complaints. Consider two examples. The central thesis of the democratic peace literature – that democracies do not fight other democracies – is hailed as one of the few law-like propositions in international relations. Yet, as critics rightly stress, we know amazingly little about the mechanisms generating such peaceful relations (Rosato 2003: 585–6, passim; Forum 2005; Hamberg 2005). And scholars have for years debated the identity-shaping effects of European institutions. One claim is that bureaucrats ‘go native’ in Brussels, adopting European values at the expense of national ones. Yet, here too, critics correctly note that we know virtually nothing about the process and mechanisms underlying these potentially transformative dynamics (Checkel 2005a,b).
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Encyclopedia of Case Study Research · 2010
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Jonathan Pickering · 2022
Abstract A major challenge for empirical analysis of deliberative processes is to establish causal relationships between the context or design of these processes (e.g. access to information or the inclusion of marginalized participants) and desired outcomes (e.g. decisions that have higher epistemic or deliberative quality or are more reflective of citizens’ values). While some of these causal relationships can be tested in experimental settings or through large-N quantitative analysis, others are much harder to test in this way, particularly when it comes to complex causal relationships operating in large-scale deliberative systems or in long-term deliberative processes. Even at a small scale, experimental methods may not be able to yield nuanced answers to how and why a deliberative forum yielded a particular outcome. Process tracing offers a promising method for structuring qualitative, explanatory case-study analysis of deliberative processes. Process tracing aims to identify causal mechanisms that connect the causes of events or phenomena to their outcomes, drawing evidence from a wide array of sources associated with a single case or a small number of cases. Many empirical studies in political science have employed process tracing in a fairly loose manner, and it is only more recently that political scientists have made a concerted effort to develop a more systematic approach. This chapter shows how scholars of deliberative democracy can employ process tracing to assess deliberation within and beyond mini-publics, building on a review of related work that employs this method and highlighting areas for future research.
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van der Pligt, J., Hewstone, M., Manstead, A.S.R. · Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) · 1995
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Palier, Bruno · SPIRE (Sciences Po) · 2019
1ères lignes : Le process tracing est une méthode qui vise à analyser les processus et séquences de décisions et d’événements qui mènent à une situation, un résultat que le chercheur ou la chercheuse souhaite expliquer (Palier et Trampusch, 2018). Cette méthode a pour ambition de trouver ou valider l’existence de mécanismes causaux qui relient les variables explicatives aux variables expliquées : elle vise à analyser les processus qui rattachent les variables indépendantes aux variables dépendantes, ce qui se passe entre X et Y (Trampusch et Palier, 2016). Elle peut faire l’objet de pratiques inductives ou déductives de recherche. Au-delà des variantes, il est possible de distinguer un certain nombre de traits communs et de bonnes pratiques. Il s’agit d’une méthode qui permet de rendre compte de processus multi-causaux, et dans lesquels le temps et le contexte sont causaux et doivent faire partie intégrante de l’explication des phénomènes politiques analysés.
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