|
Showing 1 - 9 of
9 matches in All Departments
Advances in qualitative methods and recent developments in the
philosophy of science have led to an emphasis on explanation via
reference to causal mechanisms. This book argues that the method
known as process tracing is particularly well suited to developing
and assessing theories about such mechanisms. The editors begin by
establishing a philosophical basis for process tracing - one that
captures mainstream uses while simultaneously being open to
applications by interpretive scholars. Equally important, they go
on to establish best practices for individual process-tracing
accounts - how micro to go, when to start (and stop), and how to
deal with the problem of equifinality. The contributors then
explore the application of process tracing across a range of
subfields and theories in political science. This is an applied
methods book which seeks to shrink the gap between the broad
assertion that 'process tracing is good' and the precise claim
'this is an instance of good process tracing'.
Why are hopes fading for a single European identity? Economic
integration has advanced faster and further than predicted, yet the
European sense of 'who we are' is fragmenting. Exploiting decades
of permissive consensus, Europe"s elites designed and completed the
single market, the euro, the Schengen passport-free zone, and, most
recently, crafted an extraordinarily successful policy of
enlargement. At the same time, these attempts to de-politicize
politics, to create Europe by stealth, have produced a political
backlash. This ambitious survey of identity in Europe captures the
experiences of the winners and losers, optimists and pessimists,
movers and stayers in a Europe where spatial and cultural borders
are becoming ever more permeable. A full understanding of Europe"s
ambivalence, refracted through its multiple identities, lies at the
intersection of competing European political projects and social
processes.
Advances in qualitative methods and recent developments in the
philosophy of science have led to an emphasis on explanation via
reference to causal mechanisms. This book argues that the method
known as process tracing is particularly well suited to developing
and assessing theories about such mechanisms. The editors begin by
establishing a philosophical basis for process tracing - one that
captures mainstream uses while simultaneously being open to
applications by interpretive scholars. Equally important, they go
on to establish best practices for individual process-tracing
accounts - how micro to go, when to start (and stop), and how to
deal with the problem of equifinality. The contributors then
explore the application of process tracing across a range of
subfields and theories in political science. This is an applied
methods book which seeks to shrink the gap between the broad
assertion that 'process tracing is good' and the precise claim
'this is an instance of good process tracing'.
Civil wars are the dominant form of violence in the contemporary
international system, yet they are anything but local affairs. This
book explores the border-crossing features of such wars by bringing
together insights from international relations theory, sociology,
and transnational politics with a rich comparative-quantitative
literature. It highlights the causal mechanisms - framing, resource
mobilization, socialization, among others - that link the
international and transnational to the local, emphasizing the
methods required to measure them. Contributors examine specific
mechanisms leading to particular outcomes in civil conflicts
ranging from Chechnya, to Afghanistan, to Sudan, to Turkey.
Transnational Dynamics of Civil War thus provides a significant
contribution to debates motivating the broader move to
mechanism-based forms of explanation, and will engage students and
researchers of international relations, comparative politics, and
conflict processes.
Civil wars are the dominant form of violence in the contemporary
international system, yet they are anything but local affairs. This
book explores the border-crossing features of such wars by bringing
together insights from international relations theory, sociology,
and transnational politics with a rich comparative-quantitative
literature. It highlights the causal mechanisms - framing, resource
mobilization, socialization, among others - that link the
international and transnational to the local, emphasizing the
methods required to measure them. Contributors examine specific
mechanisms leading to particular outcomes in civil conflicts
ranging from Chechnya, to Afghanistan, to Sudan, to Turkey.
Transnational Dynamics of Civil War thus provides a significant
contribution to debates motivating the broader move to
mechanism-based forms of explanation, and will engage students and
researchers of international relations, comparative politics, and
conflict processes.
Why are hopes fading for a single European identity? Economic
integration has advanced faster and further than predicted, yet the
European sense of 'who we are' is fragmenting. Exploiting decades
of permissive consensus, Europe's elites designed and completed the
single market, the euro, the Schengen passport-free zone, and, most
recently, crafted an extraordinarily successful policy of
enlargement. At the same time, these attempts to de-politicize
politics, to create Europe by stealth, have produced a political
backlash. This ambitious survey of identity in Europe captures the
experiences of the winners and losers, optimists and pessimists,
movers and stayers in a Europe where spatial and cultural borders
are becoming ever more permeable. A full understanding of Europe's
ambivalence, refracted through its multiple identities, lies at the
intersection of competing European political projects and social
processes.
Since the path-breaking work of Karl Deutsch on security
communities and Ernst Haas on European integration, it has been
clear that international institutions may create senses of
community and belonging beyond the nation state. Put differently,
they can socialize. Yet the mechanisms underlying such dynamics
have been unclear. This volume explores these mechanisms of
international community building, from a resolutely eclectic stand
point. Rationalism is thus the social theory of choice for some
contributors, while others are more comfortable with social
constructivism. This problem-driven perspective and the theoretical
bridge building it are the cutting edge in international relations
theory. By providing more fined-grained arguments on precisely how
international institutions matter, such an approach sheds crucial
light on the complex relationship between states and institutions,
between rational choice and social constructivism, and, in our
case, between Europe and the nation state.
Challenging dominant assumptions in international relations,
Altered States demonstrates that national political institutions
change more frequently-and less dramatically-than is commonly
thought and with important consequences for the political
landscape. Combining theory with solid empirical research-including
archival evidence and interviews-the contributors explore the
causes and consequences of institutional transformation in the
United States, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia and the former
Soviet Republics, and Cuba. Altered States highlights the dynamic
and interactive relationship between national political
institutions and reform-minded policy entrepreneurs, a perspective
that will interest scholars and policy makers alike.
The remarkable, peaceful end of the Cold War dramatically-and
unexpectedly-transformed international politics toward the end of
the twentieth century. At the heart of this amazing change was the
struggle over new and old ideas. Drawing on rich data from
interviews with key Soviet architects of "new thinking" and of
Gorbachev-era policy reforms, Jeffrey Checkel offers an absorbing
historical narrative of political change in the late Soviet period,
along with theoretical insights into the effect of ideas on state
behavior. International structure and domestic institutions account
for variations from country to country in how ideas influence state
policy, Checkel argues. While a changing international political
environment creates opportunities for the carriers of new ideas,
these entrepreneurs must operate within domestic institutional
settings that sharply affect their ability to influence policy. In
the late Soviet period, entrenched assumptions about international
politics were close to breaking down, creating a rare opportunity
for new thinking. Checkel draws on this analysis of policy change
in Soviet Moscow at the end of the Cold War, as well as in
post-Soviet Russia, to illuminate the role of ideas in
international political change.
|
|