Social Science Methodology

John Gerring is Professor of Political Science at Boston University, where he teaches courses on methodology and comparative politics. He has published several books including Social Science Methodology: A Criterial Framework (Cambridge, 2001), Case Study Research: Principles and Practices (Cambridge, 2007) and A Centripetal Theory of Democratic Governance (Cambridge, 2008). He served as a fellow of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, as a member of The National Academy of Sciences' Committee on the Evaluation of USAID Programs to Support the Development of Democracy, as President of the American Political Science Association's Organized Section on Qualitative and Multi-Method Research and is the current recipient of a grant from the National Science Foundation to collect historical data related to colonialism and long-term development.

• Preface; 1. A unified framework; Part I. General: 2. Beginnings; 3. Arguments; 4. Analyses; Part II. Description: 5. Concepts; 6. Descriptive arguments; 7. Measurements; Part III. Causation: 8. Causal arguments; 9. Causal analyses; 10. Causal strategies: X and Y; 11. Causal strategies: beyond X and Y; 12. Varying approaches to causal inference; Part IV. Conclusions: 13. Unity and plurality; 14. Setting standards; Postscript: justifications; Appendix: a few words on style.

'Gerring is one of the few political scientists who is equally adept at both qualitative and quantitative research, and can make the advantages of each approach clear to students. This book sheds more light on how to study causation in the social sciences than any other text - I recommend it to everyone from active researchers to beginning students.' Jack A. Goldstone, Hazel Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University