Process Tracing Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

In political science methodology, process tracing indicates the detailed and systematic empirical analysis of the causal mechanisms—or processes—linking political outcomes to their putative or possible explanatory factors. Based on a variety of sources such as interviews, memoirs, surveys, and historical documents, this procedure complements and reinforces more traditional correlational methods, which focus exclusively on the causal effect of independent variables (X) on dependent variables (Y). More precisely, process tracing allows the researcher to open the “black box” of causality and examine the path through which X leads to Y, thus gaining a better knowledge of its observable components (such as the intervening variables) and achieving a more reliable account of its unobservable parts. This makes process tracing an especially useful tool not only for testing hypotheses, but also for generating and refining them.

Process tracing is an in-depth methodological procedure. The requirements in terms of data, time, energies, and resources usually limit its use to small-n or single case studies. On the theoretical side, process tracing is compatible with all positivist research programs, and it is particularly useful in theoretically eclectic works where, in addition to the functions previously described, it can help delimit the domains of application of different logics of sociopolitical behavior.

Bibliography:

Bennett, Andrew, and Alexander George. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2005.
Checkel, Jeffrey T. “Tracing Causal Mechanisms.” International Studies Review 8, no. 2 (2006): 362–370.

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