Analytic narratives (Bates et al 1998, 2000; Levi 2002, 2004) involve selecting a problem or puzzle, then building a model to explicate the logic of an explanation for the puzzle or problem, often in the context of a unique case. The method involves several steps. First, the use of narrative to...

Few social scientists have equaled the impact on political science of Douglass C. North, co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1993. His extraordinary influence emanated from his ideas but was also a result of his vast social network of collaborators, students, and friendly...

The new institutionalism arose in the 1980s, in reaction to narrowly individualistic approaches in economics, political science, and sociology. The new institutionalists claim that rules, norms, and customs — often arbitrary and artificial — structure human interaction and can explain major...

Students of comparative politics have long faced a vexing dilemma: how can social scientists draw broad, applicable principles of political order from specific historical examples? In Analytic Narratives, five senior scholars offer a new and ambitious methodological response to this important...