Democratization and Research Methods

Democratization and Research Methods summarizes what researchers know about why countries become and remain democracies, and why they often do not.

Michael Coppedge (Author)

9780521830324, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 June 2012

376 pages, 17 b/w illus. 25 tables
25.4 x 18 x 2.2 cm, 0.79 kg

"Studying politics rigorously is hard, and studying democratization is especially so. Too often, political scientists respond to these challenges by retreating to small questions that can be studied with particular tools they are good at deploying. In this superb book Michael Coppedge shows why this response is wrong-headed. But he does much more than this. He provides a an up-to-date analysis of the major approaches to the study of democratization; he makes a compelling case for addressing important problems of democratization with multiple methods; he explains how different methods can be mutually complementary in the study of democratization; and he lays out a bold research agenda for the the future. The book should quickly become required reading in courses on democracy and democratization as well as an essential part in the methods training of the next generation of political scientists." – Ian Shapiro, author of The Real World of Democratic Theory

Democratization and Research Methods is a coherent survey and critique of both democratization research and the methodology of comparative politics. The two themes enhance each other: the democratization literature illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of various methodological approaches, and the critique of methods makes sense of the vast and bewildering democratization field. Michael Coppedge argues that each of the three main approaches in comparative politics - case studies and comparative histories, formal modeling and large-sample statistical analysis - accomplishes one fundamental research goal relatively well: 'thickness', integration and generalization, respectively. Throughout the book, comprehensive surveys of democratization research demonstrate that each approach accomplishes one of these goals well but the other two poorly. Chapters cover conceptualization and measurement, case studies and comparative histories, formal models and theories, political culture and survey research, and quantitative testing. The final chapter summarizes the state of knowledge about democratization and lays out an agenda for multi-method research.

1. Research methods and democratization
2. Defining and measuring democracy
3. Criteria for evaluating causal theories
4. Checklists, frameworks, and Boolean analysis
5. Case studies and comparative history
6. Formal models and theories
7. Rigor in extensive and intensive testing
8. Political culture and survey research
9. Quantitative testing
10. An agenda for future research.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Politics & government [JP], Research methods: general [GPS]