Advances in Comparative-Historical Analysis

This book situates comparative-historical analysis within contemporary debates in political science and explores the latest theoretical and conceptual advances.

James Mahoney (Edited by), Kathleen Thelen (Edited by)

9781107110021, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 July 2015

324 pages, 3 b/w illus. 4 tables
24.4 x 17 x 1.9 cm, 0.79 kg

Against the backdrop of an explosion of interest in new techniques for data collection and theory testing, this volume provides a fresh programmatic statement about comparative-historical analysis. It examines the advances and distinctive contributions that CHA has made to theory generation and the explanation of large-scale outcomes that newer approaches often regard as empirically intractable. An introductory essay locates the sources of CHA's enduring influence in core characteristics that distinguish this approach, such as its attention to process and its commitment to empirically grounded, deep case-based research. Subsequent chapters explore broad research programs inspired by CHA work, new analytic tools for studying temporal processes and institutional dynamics, and recent methodological tools for analyzing sequences and for combining CHA work with other approaches. This volume is essential reading for scholars seeking to learn about the sources of CHA's enduring influence and its contemporary analytical and methodological techniques.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Comparative-historical analysis in contemporary political science Kathleen Thelen and James Mahoney
Part II. Agenda-Setting Work: 2. The developmental state is dead: long live the developmental state! Stephan Haggard
3. Coalitions, policies, and distribution: Esping-Andersen's three worlds of welfare capitalism Jane Gingrich
4. Not just what but when (and how): comparative-historical approaches to authoritarian durability Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way
Part III. Tools for Temporal Analysis: 5. Power and path dependence Paul Pierson
6. Critical junctures and institutional change Giovanni Capoccia
7. Drift and conversion: hidden faces of institutional change Jacob S. Hacker, Paul Pierson and Kathleen Thelen
Part IV. Issues of Method: 8. The comparative sequential method Tulia G. Falleti and James Mahoney
9. Nested analysis: towards the integration of comparative-historical analysis with other social science methods Evan S. Lieberman
Epilogue: comparative-historical analysis: past, present, future Wolfgang Streeck.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB]