Qualitative Methods Political Science 694 Winter 2006 Professors Anna Grzymala-Busse and Robert Mickey Department of Political Science University of Michigan Emails and office hours: abusse@umich.edu, Tuesdays 2-4 rmickey@umich.edu, Wednesdays 2-4 COURSE DESCRIPTION As an effort to encourage problem-driven research, this course focuses on qualitative methods and the problems that are best addressed using these methods. Among other benefits, qualitative methods allow us to examine closely causal mechanisms at close empirical proximity. Within the literature, qualitative methods has referred to a) small-n research design, b) more direct interrogation of the evidence instead of distant proxies, and c) methods that focus on mechanisms and processes, rather than correlations. This course will examine all three of these aspects of qualitative methods, focusing on causal inference as the main goal of social science. It also considers some problems of inference raised by qualitative methods and some strategies for dealing with them. COURSE REQUIREMENTS 1. Class Participation: 25%. Each student is expected to attend class regularly and to contribute to the discussion based on assigned readings. 2. Paper(s): 75%. Each student is required to submit five papers (8-10 pages each). Assignments for each paper will be distributed two weeks before its due date. COURSE READINGS The following books are available for purchase and on reserve: Godfrey-Smith, Peter. 2003. Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hedstrom, Peter, and Richard Swedberg, eds. 1998. Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Yin, Robert K. 2003. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. A Coursetools site will used to distribute discussion questions, updates of the syllabus, and other communiqués. Philosophy of Science and Causality Jan. 11 Jan. 18 Week 1. Introduction: Pursuing Problem-Driven Research Week 2. Logical Positivism & Falsification Godfrey-Smith, Peter. 2003. Theory and Reality: chapters 2-4. Rothbart, Daniel. 1998. Science, Reason, and Reality. New York: Harcourt Brace: chapters 8-12 (Hempel, Scriven, Cartwright, Kitcher, Salmon). Elman, Colin and Miriam Fendius Elman. 2002. How Not to Be Lakatos Intolerant: Appraising Progress in IR Research. International Studies Quarterly 46: 231-262. Moon, Donald. The Logic of Political Inquiry. 1975. In Fred Greenstein and Nelson Polsby, eds. Handbook of Political Science. Reading: MA: Addison-Wesley: 131-182. Fay, Brian. 2001. General Laws and Explaining Human Behavior. In Michael Martin and Lee McIntyre, eds., Readings in The Philosophy of Social Science. Cambridge, MIT Press. Weber, Max. 2001 [1905]. Objective Possibility and Adequate Causation in Historical Explanation. In Michael Martin and Lee McIntyre, eds., Readings in The Philosophy of Social Science. Cambridge, MIT Press. Marini, Margaret and Burton Singer. 1988. Causality in the Social Sciences. In Clifford Clogg, ed. Sociological Methodology: 347-409. Lakatos, Imre. 1970. Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes. In Lakatos and Alan Musgrave, eds. Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 91-196. Jan. 25 Week 3. Causal Inference: Probabilistic and Deterministic Approaches to Causation Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality, chapters 13-14. 2
Davidson, Donald. Actions, Reasons, and Causes. 1963. Journal of Philosophy 60: 685-700. Mackie, John L. 1965. Causes and Conditions. American Philosophical Quarterly 2: 245-264. Salmon, Wesley. 1998. Scientific Explanation: Causation and Unification. In Salmon, Causality and Explanation. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 68-78. Holland, Paul W. 1986. Statistics and Causal Inference (in Theory and Methods). Journal of the American Statistical Association 81: 945-960. Marini, Margaret and Burton Singer. 1988. Causality in the Social Sciences. In Clifford Clogg, ed., Sociological Methodology: 347-409. Bear F. Braumoeller and Gary Goertz. 2000. The Methodology of Necessary Conditions. American Journal of Political Science 44: 844-858. Levy, Jack S. 2003. Necessary Conditions in Case Studies: Preferences, Constraints, and Choices in July 1914. In Gary Goertz and Harvey Starr, eds. Necessary Conditions: Theory, Methodology, and Applications. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield: 113-145. Brady, Henry. 2003. Model of Causal Inference; Going Beyond the Neyman-Holland- Rubin Theory, mss. Waldner, David. 2002. Anti Anti-Determinism Mss. Monday, Jan. 30 FIRST PAPER DUE BY EMAIL AT 5PM Research Design Feb. 1 Week 4. Correlations vs. Causal Mechanisms: What We Can Learn from Small and Large-n Research? Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality, chapter 7. Lieberson, Stanley. 1985. Making It Count. Berkeley: University of California Press: pages TBA. 3
Hedstrom and Swedberg. 1998. Social Mechanisms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: chapters 1-3, 5-8, 10 (Hedstrom and Swedberg, Schelling, Elster, Gambetta, Cowen, Kuran, Boudon, Sorenson). Hall, Peter A. 2003. Aligning Ontology and Methodology, in James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, eds. Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press. Petersen, Roger. 1999. Mechanisms and Structures in Comparison. In J. Bowen and Roger Petersen, eds. Critical Comparisons in Politics and Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press. McKim, Vaughn and Stephen Turner. 1997. Introduction. In McKim and Turner, eds. Causality in Crisis? Statistical Methods and the Search for Causal Knowledge in the Social Sciences. University of Notre Dame: 1-19. Feb. 8 Week 5. Small-n Research Design: Critiques Lijphart, Arend. 1975. The Comparable-Case Strategy in Comparative Research. Comparative Political Studies 8: 158-77. Sekhon, Jasjeet S. 2004. Quality Meets Quantity: Case Studies, Conditional Probability, and Counterfactuals. Perspectives on Politics 2: 281-293. Available at http://sekhon.polisci.berkeley.edu/papers/qualityquantity.pdf Achen, Christopher and Duncan Snidal. 1989. Rational Deterrence Theory and Comparative Case Studies. World Politics 41: 144-169. Lieberson, Stanley. 1991. Small N's and Big Conclusions: An Examination of the Reasoning in Comparative Studies Based on a Small Number of Cases. Social Forces: 307-320. Geddes, Barbara. 1990. How the Cases You Choose Affect the Answers You Get: Selection Bias in Comparative Politics. Political Analysis 2: 131-50. Feb. 15 Week 6. Small-n Research Design: Responses Collier, David and James Mahoney. 1996. Insights and Pitfalls: Selection Bias in Qualitative Research. World Politics 49: 56-91 Dion, Douglas. 1998. Evidence and Inference in the Comparative Case Study. Comparative Politics 30:127-45. 4
Campbell, Donald. 1975. Degrees of Freedom and the Case Study. Comparative Political Studies 8: 178-193. Mahoney, James. 2000. Strategies of Causal Inference in Small-N Analysis. Sociological Methods & Research 28: 387-424. Mahoney, James. 1999. Nominal, Ordinal, and Narrative Appraisal in Macrocausal analysis. American Journal of Sociology 104: 1154-1196. Bradshaw, York and Michael Wallace. 1991. Informing Generality and Explaining Uniqueness: The Place of Case Studies in Comparative Research. International Journal of Comparative Sociology 32: 154-171. Timothy J. McKeown. 1999. Case Studies and the Statistical Worldview. International Organization 53: 161-190. Yin, Robert K. 2003. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications. Ragin, Charles C. 1997. Turning the Tables: How Case-Oriented Research Challenges Variable Oriented Research. Comparative Social Research 16: 27-42. George, Alexander, and Bennett, Andrew. 2005. Cast Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: MIT Press. Monday, Feb. 20 SECOND PAPER DUE BY EMAIL AT 5PM Feb. 22 Week 7. Concept formation and stretching King, Keohane, and Verba, Designing Social Inquiry, 23-27, 151-155. Sartori, Giovanni. 1970. Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics. American Political Science Review 64: 1033-1053. Hirschman, Albert O. 1985. Against Parsimony: Three Easy Ways of Complicating some Categories of Economic Discourse. Economics and Philosophy 1: 7-21. Adcock, Robert and David Collier. 2001. Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research, APSR 95: 529-546. Munck, Gerardo L. and Jay Verkuilen. 2002. Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating Alternative Indices. Comparative Political Studies: 35-39. (Includes response by Michael Coppedge). 5
Gerring, Social Science Methodology, ch. 3. March 1 Winter Break No Class Monday, Mar. 6 THIRD PAPER DUE BY EMAIL AT 5PM Evidence: More Direct Interrogation Instead of Distant Proxies (Applications and Evaluation) Mar. 8 Week 8. Agents, Decisions, and Intentions: Elite Interviews and Documents Janis, Irving L., and L. Mann. 1976. Decision-Making. Riverside, NJ: Free Press: 171-218. George, Alexander, and Timothy McKeown. 1985. Case Studies and Theories of Organizational Decision Making, Advances in Information Processing in Organizations (JAI Press). Symposium: Interview Methods in Political Science. 2002. Political Science and Politics 35: 663-688. Luker, Kristin. 1984. Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood. Berkeley: University of California Press: chapters 7-8. Mar. 15 Week 9. Structures and Constraints: Content Analysis and Archival Data Lustick, Ian. 1996. History, Historiography, and Political Science: Multiple Historical Records and the Problem of Selection Bias, APSR 90: 605-18. Collier, David. 1999. Data, Field Work, and Extracting New Ideas at Close Range, APSA Comparative Politics Newsletter (Winter): 1-6. Thies, Cameron. 19XX. A Pragmatic Guide to Qualitative Historical Analysis in the Study of International Relations. International Studies Perspectives 3: 351-372. Petersen, Roger. 1999. Mechanisms and Structures in Comparison. In J. Bowen and Roger Petersen, eds. Critical Comparisons in Politics and Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press. 6
Griffin, Larry. 1993. Narrative, Event-Structure Analysis, and Causal Interpretation. American Journal of Sociology 8: 1094-1133. chapters of Dan Carpenter s The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy Mar. 22 Week 10. Processes and Interpretation: Participant Observation and Ethnography Geertz, Clifford. 1973. Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture. In Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books: 3-30. Schwartz, Joel. 1984. Participation and Multisubjective Understanding; An Interpretivist Approach to the Study of Political Participation. Journal of Politics: 1117-1141. Laitin, David. 1986. Hegemony and Culture: Politics and Religious Change among the Yoruba. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Taylor, Michael. 1989. Structure, Culture, and Action. Politics & Society 17:115-162 Rabinow, Paul, and William M. Sullivan. 1987. The Interpretive Turn: A Second Look. In Rabinow and Sullivan, eds. Interpretive Social Science: A Second Look. Berkeley: University of California Press: 1-30. John Dunn. 1979. Practicing History and Social Science on Realist Assumptions. In C. Hookway and P. Pettit, eds. Action and Interpretation: Studies in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 145-175. Monday, Mar. 27 FOURTH PAPER DUE BY EMAIL AT 5PM Mar. 29 Week 11. Counterfactuals Lebow, Richard Ned. 1999. What s So Different About a Counterfactual? World Politics: 550-85. Fearon, James D. 1991. Counterfactuals and Hypothesis Testing in Political Science. World Politics 43: 169-195. Weingast, Barry R. 1996. Off-the-Path Behavior: A Game-Theoretic Approach to Counterfactuals and Its Implications for Political and Historical Analysis. In Philip E. Tetlock and Aaron Belkin, eds. Counterfactual Thought Experiments in World Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Kiser, Edgar and Levi, Margaret. 1996. Using Counterfactuals in Historical Analysis. In Philip E. Tetlock and Aaron Belkin, eds. Counterfactual Thought Experiments in World Politics. Princeton University Press: 187-210. 7
April 5 Week 12: Dynamic Processes and Mechanisms Tilly, Charles. 2001. Mechanisms in Political Processes. Annual Review of Political Science 4: 21-41. Kuran, Timor. 1989. Sparks and Prairie Fires: A Theory of Unanticipated Political Revolution. Public Choice 61: 41-74. Abbott, Andrew. 1997. On the Concept of a Turning Point. Comparative Social Research 16: 85-105. Goldstone, Jack. 1998. Initial Conditions, General Laws, Path Dependence, and Explanation in Historical Sociology. American Journal of Sociology 104: 829-845. Schelling, Thomas. 1978. Micromotives and Macrobehavior. New York: W.W. Norton. Chapter 4. Chwe, Michael. 2001. Rational Ritual. Princeton: Princeton University Press: 3-18. Lohmann, Susanne. 1994. Dynamics of Informational Cascades: The Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig, East Germany, 1989-1991. World Politics 47: 42-101. Apr. 12 Week 13: Temporality and Sequencing Pierson, Paul. 2001. Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, And the Study of Politics. American Political Science Review 94: 251-267. Page, Scott. 2005. An Essay on the Existence, Types, and Causes of Path Dependence. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 1: xx-xx. Mahoney, James. 2000. Path Dependence in Historical Sociology. Theory and Society 29: 507-548. Haydu, Jeffrey. 1998. Making Use of the Past: Time Periods as Cases to Compare and as Sequences of Problem Solving. American Journal of Sociology. Sewell, William H., Jr.. 1996. Three Temporalities: Toward an Eventful Sociology. In Terrence J. McDonald, ed. The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 8
Monday, Apr. 17 FIFTH PAPER DUE BY EMAIL AT 5PM Apr. 19 Week 14: Macro-Historical Analysis Mahoney, James. 2003. Strategies of Causal Assessment in Comparative Historical Analysis. In James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, eds. Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press. Tilly, Charles. 1984. Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Chapters 1-3. Lukes, Steven. 2001. Methodological individualism reconsidered. In Michael Martin and Lee McIntyre, eds., Readings in The Philosophy of Social Science. Cambridge: MIT Press. Skocpol, Theda and Margaret Somers. 1980. The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial Inquiry. Comparative Studies in Society and History 2: 174-97. Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, and John D. Stephens. 1997. Comparing Historical Sequences: A Powerful Tool for Causal Analysis. Comparative Social Research 16: 55-72. Paige, Jeffrey M. 1999. Conjuncture, Comparison, and Conditional Theory in Macrosociological Inquiry. American Journal of Sociology 105: 781-800. Roberts, Clayton. 1996. The Logic of Historical Explanation. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 9