Analysts who developed the set-theoretic comparative method (STCM) have formulated valuable goals for researchers who work in the qualitative and multi-method tradition. This method includes above all Charles Ragin's Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), along with further systematization of...

Analysts who developed the set-theoretic comparative method (STCM) have formulated admirable goals for researchers who work in the qualitative and multi-method tradition. This method includes above all Charles Ragin’s innovative approach of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). However, the...

Cross-national research focused on corporative patterns of state-labor relations can be guided by the questions 'who does what, to whom, and how?' With reference to who, the actors launching corporative arrangements must be carefully identified. Regarding what and to whom, attention must focus...

The concept of bureaucratic authoritarianism arose from the study of major episodes of authoritarianism in South America between the 1960s and the 1980s. Typified by military rule and a bureaucratic, technocratic approach to policy-making, this type of authoritarianism was generally accompanied...

The rise of a new wave of authoritarian regimes in the economically more advanced countries of Latin America has stimulated new debate on the relationship between socioeconomic development and political change. This article builds on the perspective gained since the publication of Guillermo...

When scholars extend their models and hypotheses to encompass additional cases, they commonly need to adapt their analytic categories to fit the new contexts. Giovanni Sartori's work on conceptual "traveling" and conceptual "stretching" provides helpful guidance in addressing this fundamental...

The article assesses the use of strategic choice models in the study of Latin American politics. These models explore how given actors pursue goals by shaping the context in which other actors make choices. The discussion centers on Hirschman’s analysis of “reform-mongering,”...

Typologies are a well-established analytic tool in the social sciences. Working with typologies contributes decisively to forming concepts, exploring dimensionality, establishing measurement categories, and grouping cases. Yet some critics – basing their arguments on what they believe to be...

Both qualitative and quantitative research routinely fall short, producing misleading causal inferences. Because these weaknesses are in part different, we are convinced that multi-method strategies are productive. Each approach can provide additional leverage that helps address shortcomings of...

Social security is one of the most important means by which modern nations protect the welfare of their citizens. The first appearance of social security represents a particularly important policy juncture at which many nations broke from the anti-welfare doctrine of traditional liberalism. The...