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Political Analysis Advance Access published online on June 7, 2006
Political Analysis, doi:10.1093/pan/mpj020
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Political Methodology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Article

Complex Causal Relations and Case Study Methods: The Example of Path Dependence

Andrew Bennett 1 and Colin Elman 2 *

1 Department of Government, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057
2 Department of Political Science, Arizona State University, Box 873902, Tempe, AZ 85287-3902

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Colin Elman, E-mail: colin.elman{at}asu.edu


  Abstract

This article discusses the application of qualitative methods in analyzing causal complexity. In particular, the essay reviews how process tracing and systematic case comparisons can address path-dependent explanations. The article unpacks the concept of path dependence and its component elements of causal possibility, contingency, closure of alternatives, and constraints to the current path. The article then reviews four strengths that case studies bring to the study of path dependence: offering a detailed and holistic analysis of sequences in historical cases, being suitable for the study of rare events, facilitating the search for omitted variables that might lie behind contingent events, and allowing for the study of interaction effects within one or a few cases.


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