Zachary Elkins is Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas. He publishes widely in the fields of comparative politics, methodology, and public law, with a focus on Latin America and the origins and consequences of constitutional design. He co-directs the Comparative Constitutions Project and has developed a set of tools to analyze constitutions and other canonical documents.

• Acknowledgments; Preface Zachary Elkins; Introduction: learning about concepts David Collier; Part I. Traveling, Stretching, and Conceptual Hierarchies: 1. Conceptual stretching revisited: adapting concepts in comparative analysis David Collier and James E. Mahon; 2. Democracy with adjectives: conceptual hierarchies in comparative research David Collier and Steven Levitsky; 3. Trajectory of a concept: corporatism in the study of Latin American politics David Collier; Research Notes: 4. A warning: maintaining conceptual boundaries in the era of democratic anxiety Kurt Weyland; 5. The V-Dem project: a multidimensional perspective on 'democracy with adjectives' Michael Coppedge; 6. Successful conceptual traveling: corporatism in Latin America, 1995–2023 Sarah Chartock; Part II. Typologies and Concept Formation: 7. Putting typologies to work: concept formation, measurement, and analytic rigor David Collier, Jody LaPorte and Jason Seawright; Research Notes: 8. Typologies and concept formation: untangling clientelism Simeon Nichter; 9. Working with typologies: analytic leverage in post-communist studies Danielle Lussier; Part III. Untangling Concepts: Contestation, Pragmatism, and Disaggregation: 10. Essentially contested concepts: debates and applications David Collier, Daniel Hidalgo and Olivia Maciuceanu; 11. Democracy and dichotomies: a pragmatic approach to choices about concepts David Collier and Robert Adcock; 12. Inducements versus constraints: disaggregating corporatism Ruth Berins Collier and David Collier; Research Notes: 13. Genocide: a legal concept for the social sciences? Scott Straus; 14. Contested concepts: a Large-N analysis John Gerring and Lee Cojocaru; 15. Conceptual disaggregation: strengthening analytic leverage Marcus Kurtz; Part IV. Measurement Validity: 16. Measurement validity: a shared standard for qualitative and quantitative research Robert Adcock and David Collier; 17. Rival strategies of validation: options and trade-offs Jason Seawright and David Collier; Research Notes: 18. How have interpretivism and big data changed the landscape for measurement validation? Jason Seawright; 19. Conceptual choices, measurement validity, and dubious dualisms Robert Adcock; Part V. Reaching Out to New Domains: 20. Digital semantics: formal methods of concept mapping Zachary Elkins; 21. Causal inference: the critical role of concepts Thad Dunning; 22. Formal theory and concept formation: practical advice for non-modelers Benjamin Lessing; Part VI. Teaching: 23. Moving forward: teaching concepts and concept analysis Jennifer Bussell; 24. Notes on teaching concept analysis Zachary Elkins; Part VII. Conclusion: 25. Conclusion: working with concepts David Collier and Zachary Elkins.