Rethinking social inquiry: diverse tools, shared standards

With innovative new chapters on process tracing, regression analysis, and natural experiments, the second edition of Rethinking Social Inquiry further extends the reach of this path-breaking book. The original debate with King, Keohane, and Verba--now updated--remains central to the volume, and the new material illuminates evolving discussions of essential methodological tools. Thus, process tracing is often invoked as fundamental to qualitative analysis, but is rarely applied with precision. Pitfalls of regression analysis are sometimes noted, but often are inadequately examined. And the complex assumptions and trade-offs of natural experiments are poorly understood. The second edition extends the methodological horizon through exploring these critical tools. A distinctive feature of this edition is the online placement of four chapters from the prior edition, all focused on the dialogue with King, Keohane, and Verba. Also posted online are exercises for teaching process tracing.

Introduction to the second edition: a sea change in political methodology / David Collier, Henry E. Brady, and Jason Seawright -- Refocusing the discussion of methodology / Henry E. Brady, David Collier, and Jason Seawright -- The quest for standards: King, Keohane, and Verba's Designing social inquiry / David Collier, Jason Seawright, and Gerardo L. Munck -- Doing good and doing better: how far does the quantitative template get us? / Henry E. Brady -- Some unfulfilled promises of quantitative imperialism / Larry M. Bartels -- How interference in the social (but not the physical) sciences neglects theoretical anomaly / Ronald Rogowski -- Bridging the quantitative-qualitative divide / Sidney Tarrow -- The importance of research design / Gary King, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba -- Critiques, responses, and trade-offs: drawing together the debate / David Collier, Henry E. Brady, and Jason Seawright -- Sources of leverage in casual interference: toward an alternative view of methodology / David Collier, Henry E. Brady, and Jason Seawright -- Process tracing and casual inference / Andrew Bennett -- On types of scientific inquiry: the role of qualitative reasoning / David A. Free…