Causal Process "Observation": Oxymoron or (Fine) Old Wine

被引:18
作者
Beck, Nathaniel [1 ]
机构
[1] NYU, Dept Polit, New York, NY 10003 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1093/pan/mpq023
中图分类号
D0 [政治学、政治理论];
学科分类号
0302 ; 030201 ;
摘要
The issue of how qualitative and quantitative information can be used together is critical. Brady, Collier, and Seawright (BCS) have argued that "causal process observations" can be adjoined to "data set observations." This implies that qualitative methods can be used to add information to quantitative data sets. In a symposium in Political Analysis, I argued that such qualitative information cannot be adjoined in any meaningful way to quantitative data sets. In that symposium, the original authors offered several defenses, but, in the end, BCS can be seen as recommending good, but hopefully standard, research design practices that are normally thought of as central in the quantitative arena. It is good that BCS remind us that no amount of fancy statistics can save a bad research design.
引用
收藏
页码:499 / 505
页数:7
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