Jason Seawright
Biographic Data
| ID | 288342 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jason Seawright |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jason |
| FAMILY NAME | Seawright |
| SIGNATURE | SEAWRIGHT J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northwestern University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4974-9832 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1788 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
How do social scientists reach causal inferences? A study of reception
Finding Your Social Science Project: The Research Sandbox
The most important step in social science research is the first step – finding a topic. Unfortunately, little guidance on this crucial and difficult challenge is available. Methodological studies and courses tend to focus on theory testing rather than theory generation. This book aims to redress that imbalance. The first part of the book offers an overview of the book's central concerns. How do social scientists arrive at ideas for their work? Wh…
Finding Your Social Science Project: The Research Sandbox
Books by Our Readers
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Statistical analysis of democratization: A Constructive Critique
While statistical analysis of the origins and stability of democracy has received a great deal of scholarly effort, and made major contributions to comparative politics, valid causal inference in this tradition remains exceptionally difficult and, perhaps, elusive. Three important challenges create difficulty for scholars who seek to assess the state of knowledge in this domain. First, most existing work on the origins of democracy starts (often …
The Life and Death of Political Parties Since Latin America's Third Wave
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Nonparametric Combination (NPC): A Framework for Testing Elaborate Theories
Social scientists are commonly advised to deduce and test all observable implications of their theories. We describe a principled framework for testing such "elaborate" theories: nonparametric combination. Nonparametric combination (NPC) assesses the joint probability of observing the theoretically predicted pattern of results under the sharp null of no effects. NPC accounts for the dependence among the component tests without relying on modeling…
Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research: A Menu of Qualitative and Quantitative Options
The case for combining research methods generally, and more specifically that for combining qualitative and quantitative methods, is strong. Yet, research designs that extensively integrate both fieldwork (e.g. case studies) and survey research are rare. Moreover, some journals tend tacitly to specialise by methodology thereby encouraging purity of method. The multi-method model of research, while not new, has not been appreciated. In this respec…
Multi-Method Social Science: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Tools
Reflecting the rising popularity of research that combines qualitative and quantitative social science, Multi-Method Social Science provides the first systematic guide to designing multi-method research. It argues that methods can be productively combined using the framework of integrative multi-method research, with one method used to carry out a final causal inference, and methods from other traditions used to test the key assumptions involved …
The Case for Selecting Cases That Are Deviant or Extreme on the Independent Variable
Qualitative and multimethod scholars face a wide and often confusing array of alternatives for case selection using the results of a prior regression analysis. Methodologists have recommended alternatives including selection of typical cases, deviant cases, extreme cases on the independent variable, extreme cases on the dependent variable, influential cases, most similar cases, most different cases, pathway cases, and randomly sampled cases, amon…
Better Multimethod Design: The Promise of Integrative Multimethod Research
As this symposium suggests, we are in the middle of a boom time for multimethod research in the social sciences. Gary Goertz's essay shows how case studies can test claims about causal pathways; this suggestion should be seen as an element of a broader set of possibilities. “Integrative multimethod designs” provide a family of compelling strategies for linking qualitative and quantitative components of an overall design, while also enhancing the …
Rival Strategies of Validation: Tools for Evaluating Measures of Democracy
The challenge of finding appropriate tools for measurement validation is an abiding concern in political science. This article considers four traditions of validation, using examples from cross-national research on democracy: the levels-of-measurement approach, structural-equation modeling with latent variables, the pragmatic tradition, and the case-based method. Methodologists have sharply disputed the merits of alternative traditions. We encour…
Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans
It is important to know what wealthy Americans seek from politics and how (if at all) their policy preferences differ from those of other citizens. There can be little doubt that the wealthy exert more political influence than the less affluent do. If they tend to get their way in some areas of public policy, and if they have policy preferences that differ significantly from those of most Americans, the results could be troubling for democratic p…
Do Electoral Laws Affect Women’s Representation
Numerous studies have found that proportional electoral rules significantly increase women’s representation in national parliaments relative to majoritarian and mixed rules. These studies, however, suffer from serious methodological problems including the endogeneity of electoral laws, poor measures of cultural variables, and neglect of time trends. This article attempts to produce more accurate estimates of the effect of electoral rules on women…
Party-System Collapse: The Roots of Crisis in Peru and Venezuela
Techniques for Choosing Cases
Case study analysis focuses on a small number of cases that are expected to provide insight into a causal relationship across a larger population of cases. This presents the researcher with a formidable problem of case selection. Which cases should be chosen? In large-sample research, case selection is usually handled by some version of randomization. If a sample consists of a large enough number of independent random draws, the selected cases ar…
Party-System Collapse: The Roots of Crisis in Peru and Venezuela
Most party systems are relatively stable over time. Yet in the 1980s and 1990s, established party systems in Peru and Venezuela broke down, leading to the elections of outsider Alberto Fujimori and anti-party populist Hugo Chavez. Focusing on these two cases, this book explores the causes of systemic collapse. The author argues that party-system collapse is motivated fundamentally by voter anger at the traditional political parties, which is prod…
Putting Typologies to Work: Concept Formation, Measurement, and Analytic Rigor
Typologies are well-established analytic tools in the social sciences. They can be “put to work” in forming concepts, refining measurement, exploring dimensionality, and organizing explanatory claims. Yet some critics, basing their arguments on what they believe are relevant norms of quantitative measurement, consider typologies old-fashioned and unsophisticated. This critique is methodologically unsound, and research based on typologies can and …
Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela: The Chávez Authoritarian Experiment – By Allan Brewer‐Carías
Refocusing The Discussion Of Methodology
Sources Of Leverage In Causal Inference: Toward An Alternative View Of Methodology
Regression-Based Inference: A Case Study In Failed Causal Assessment
Introduction To The Second Edition: A Sea Change In Political Methodology
Critiques, Responses, And Tradeoffs: Drawing Together The Debate
The Quest For Standards: King, Keohane, And Verba'S Designing Social Inquiry
Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research: A Menu of Qualitative and Quantitative Options
How can scholars select cases from a large universe for in-depth case study analysis? Random sampling is not typically a viable approach when the total number of cases to be selected is small. Hence attention to purposive modes of sampling is needed. Yet, while the existing qualitative literature on case selection offers a wide range of suggestions for case selection, most techniques discussed require in-depth familiarity of each case. Seven case…
Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans
It is important to know what wealthy Americans seek from politics and how (if at all) their policy preferences differ from those of other citizens. There can be little doubt that the wealthy exert more political influence than the less affluent do. If they tend to get their way in some areas of public policy, and if they have policy preferences that differ significantly from those of most Americans, the results could be troubling for democratic p…
Putting Typologies to Work: Concept Formation, Measurement, and Analytic Rigor
Typologies are well-established analytic tools in the social sciences. They can be “put to work” in forming concepts, refining measurement, exploring dimensionality, and organizing explanatory claims. Yet some critics, basing their arguments on what they believe are relevant norms of quantitative measurement, consider typologies old-fashioned and unsophisticated. This critique is methodologically unsound, and research based on typologies can and …
Toward a Pluralistic Vision of Methodology
The discussion of qualitative and quantitative research methods in political science has followed a “long arc of development,” according to Andrew Bennett (this symposium). He sees our bookRethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Standards(RSI) as a “key turning point” in this development and as contributing to a more pluralistic vision of methodology. We would certainly be gratified if we have indeed made this contribution. Yet this is an ongoi…
Do Electoral Laws Affect Women’s Representation
Numerous studies have found that proportional electoral rules significantly increase women’s representation in national parliaments relative to majoritarian and mixed rules. These studies, however, suffer from serious methodological problems including the endogeneity of electoral laws, poor measures of cultural variables, and neglect of time trends. This article attempts to produce more accurate estimates of the effect of electoral rules on women…
Qualitative comparative analysis vis-à-vis regression
Testing for Necessary and/or Sufficient Causation: Which Cases Are Relevant
Previous researchers have argued that necessary and/or sufficient causes should be tested through research designs that consider only cases with limited combinations of scores on the independent and the dependent variables. I explore the utility for causal inference of the design proposed by these authors, as compared to an “All Cases Design.” I find that, if researchers define the population carefully and appropriately, each case in the populati…
The Case for Selecting Cases That Are Deviant or Extreme on the Independent Variable
Qualitative and multimethod scholars face a wide and often confusing array of alternatives for case selection using the results of a prior regression analysis. Methodologists have recommended alternatives including selection of typical cases, deviant cases, extreme cases on the independent variable, extreme cases on the dependent variable, influential cases, most similar cases, most different cases, pathway cases, and randomly sampled cases, amon…
Outdated Views of Qualitative Methods: Time to Move On
Both qualitative and quantitative research routinely fall short, producing misleading causal inferences. Because these weaknesses are in part different, we are convinced that multimethod strategies are productive. Each approach can provide additional leverage that helps address shortcomings of the other. This position is quite distinct from that of Beck, who believes that the two types of analysis cannot be adjoined. We review examples of adjoini…
Rival Strategies of Validation: Tools for Evaluating Measures of Democracy
The challenge of finding appropriate tools for measurement validation is an abiding concern in political science. This article considers four traditions of validation, using examples from cross-national research on democracy: the levels-of-measurement approach, structural-equation modeling with latent variables, the pragmatic tradition, and the case-based method. Methodologists have sharply disputed the merits of alternative traditions. We encour…
Nonparametric Combination (NPC): A Framework for Testing Elaborate Theories
Social scientists are commonly advised to deduce and test all observable implications of their theories. We describe a principled framework for testing such "elaborate" theories: nonparametric combination. Nonparametric combination (NPC) assesses the joint probability of observing the theoretically predicted pattern of results under the sharp null of no effects. NPC accounts for the dependence among the component tests without relying on modeling…
Statistical analysis of democratization: A Constructive Critique
While statistical analysis of the origins and stability of democracy has received a great deal of scholarly effort, and made major contributions to comparative politics, valid causal inference in this tradition remains exceptionally difficult and, perhaps, elusive. Three important challenges create difficulty for scholars who seek to assess the state of knowledge in this domain. First, most existing work on the origins of democracy starts (often …
Better Multimethod Design: The Promise of Integrative Multimethod Research
As this symposium suggests, we are in the middle of a boom time for multimethod research in the social sciences. Gary Goertz's essay shows how case studies can test claims about causal pathways; this suggestion should be seen as an element of a broader set of possibilities. “Integrative multimethod designs” provide a family of compelling strategies for linking qualitative and quantitative components of an overall design, while also enhancing the …
Assumptions, causal inference, and the goals of QCA
What Counts as Evidence? Reply
The complex question of what counts as appropriate evidence for necessary and/or sufficient causation merits careful, ongoing discussion. I thank Kevin Clarke (2002) and Bear Braumoeller and Gary Goertz (2002) for their thoughtful responses to my (Seawright 2002) article, and I discuss their comments in turn
What Counts as Evidence? Reply
The complex question of what counts as appropriate evidence for necessary and/or sufficient causation merits careful, ongoing discussion. I thank Kevin Clarke (2002) and Bear Braumoeller and Gary Goertz (2002) for their thoughtful responses to my (Seawright 2002) article, and I discuss their comments in turn
Testing for Necessary and/or Sufficient Causation: Which Cases Are Relevant
Previous researchers have argued that necessary and/or sufficient causes should be tested through research designs that consider only cases with limited combinations of scores on the independent and the dependent variables. I explore the utility for causal inference of the design proposed by these authors, as compared to an “All Cases Design.” I find that, if researchers define the population carefully and appropriately, each case in the populati…
Assumptions, causal inference, and the goals of QCA
Qualitative comparative analysis vis-à-vis regression
Toward a Pluralistic Vision of Methodology
The discussion of qualitative and quantitative research methods in political science has followed a “long arc of development,” according to Andrew Bennett (this symposium). He sees our bookRethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Standards(RSI) as a “key turning point” in this development and as contributing to a more pluralistic vision of methodology. We would certainly be gratified if we have indeed made this contribution. Yet this is an ongoi…
Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research: A Menu of Qualitative and Quantitative Options
How can scholars select cases from a large universe for in-depth case study analysis? Random sampling is not typically a viable approach when the total number of cases to be selected is small. Hence attention to purposive modes of sampling is needed. Yet, while the existing qualitative literature on case selection offers a wide range of suggestions for case selection, most techniques discussed require in-depth familiarity of each case. Seven case…
Refocusing The Discussion Of Methodology
Sources Of Leverage In Causal Inference: Toward An Alternative View Of Methodology
Regression-Based Inference: A Case Study In Failed Causal Assessment
Introduction To The Second Edition: A Sea Change In Political Methodology
Critiques, Responses, And Tradeoffs: Drawing Together The Debate
The Quest For Standards: King, Keohane, And Verba'S Designing Social Inquiry
Outdated Views of Qualitative Methods: Time to Move On
Both qualitative and quantitative research routinely fall short, producing misleading causal inferences. Because these weaknesses are in part different, we are convinced that multimethod strategies are productive. Each approach can provide additional leverage that helps address shortcomings of the other. This position is quite distinct from that of Beck, who believes that the two types of analysis cannot be adjoined. We review examples of adjoini…
Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela: The Chávez Authoritarian Experiment – By Allan Brewer‐Carías
Party-System Collapse: The Roots of Crisis in Peru and Venezuela
Techniques for Choosing Cases
Case study analysis focuses on a small number of cases that are expected to provide insight into a causal relationship across a larger population of cases. This presents the researcher with a formidable problem of case selection. Which cases should be chosen? In large-sample research, case selection is usually handled by some version of randomization. If a sample consists of a large enough number of independent random draws, the selected cases ar…
Party-System Collapse: The Roots of Crisis in Peru and Venezuela
Most party systems are relatively stable over time. Yet in the 1980s and 1990s, established party systems in Peru and Venezuela broke down, leading to the elections of outsider Alberto Fujimori and anti-party populist Hugo Chavez. Focusing on these two cases, this book explores the causes of systemic collapse. The author argues that party-system collapse is motivated fundamentally by voter anger at the traditional political parties, which is prod…
Putting Typologies to Work: Concept Formation, Measurement, and Analytic Rigor
Typologies are well-established analytic tools in the social sciences. They can be “put to work” in forming concepts, refining measurement, exploring dimensionality, and organizing explanatory claims. Yet some critics, basing their arguments on what they believe are relevant norms of quantitative measurement, consider typologies old-fashioned and unsophisticated. This critique is methodologically unsound, and research based on typologies can and …
Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans
It is important to know what wealthy Americans seek from politics and how (if at all) their policy preferences differ from those of other citizens. There can be little doubt that the wealthy exert more political influence than the less affluent do. If they tend to get their way in some areas of public policy, and if they have policy preferences that differ significantly from those of most Americans, the results could be troubling for democratic p…
Do Electoral Laws Affect Women’s Representation
Numerous studies have found that proportional electoral rules significantly increase women’s representation in national parliaments relative to majoritarian and mixed rules. These studies, however, suffer from serious methodological problems including the endogeneity of electoral laws, poor measures of cultural variables, and neglect of time trends. This article attempts to produce more accurate estimates of the effect of electoral rules on women…
Rival Strategies of Validation: Tools for Evaluating Measures of Democracy
The challenge of finding appropriate tools for measurement validation is an abiding concern in political science. This article considers four traditions of validation, using examples from cross-national research on democracy: the levels-of-measurement approach, structural-equation modeling with latent variables, the pragmatic tradition, and the case-based method. Methodologists have sharply disputed the merits of alternative traditions. We encour…
Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research: A Menu of Qualitative and Quantitative Options
The case for combining research methods generally, and more specifically that for combining qualitative and quantitative methods, is strong. Yet, research designs that extensively integrate both fieldwork (e.g. case studies) and survey research are rare. Moreover, some journals tend tacitly to specialise by methodology thereby encouraging purity of method. The multi-method model of research, while not new, has not been appreciated. In this respec…
Multi-Method Social Science: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Tools
Reflecting the rising popularity of research that combines qualitative and quantitative social science, Multi-Method Social Science provides the first systematic guide to designing multi-method research. It argues that methods can be productively combined using the framework of integrative multi-method research, with one method used to carry out a final causal inference, and methods from other traditions used to test the key assumptions involved …
The Case for Selecting Cases That Are Deviant or Extreme on the Independent Variable
Qualitative and multimethod scholars face a wide and often confusing array of alternatives for case selection using the results of a prior regression analysis. Methodologists have recommended alternatives including selection of typical cases, deviant cases, extreme cases on the independent variable, extreme cases on the dependent variable, influential cases, most similar cases, most different cases, pathway cases, and randomly sampled cases, amon…
Better Multimethod Design: The Promise of Integrative Multimethod Research
As this symposium suggests, we are in the middle of a boom time for multimethod research in the social sciences. Gary Goertz's essay shows how case studies can test claims about causal pathways; this suggestion should be seen as an element of a broader set of possibilities. “Integrative multimethod designs” provide a family of compelling strategies for linking qualitative and quantitative components of an overall design, while also enhancing the …
Computer Science (22 works) · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research (17 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Mathematics (14 works) · Political science (14 works) · Econometrics (11 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · Causal inference (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Artificial Intelligence (8 works)