Context and Causal Mechanisms in Political Analysis

2009/04/21 by Tulia G. Falleti, Julia F. Lynch, Julia Lynch · 900 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Argument (complex analysis) #Causal analysis #Causal inference #Causal model #Causal structure #Causality (physics) #Causation #Computer science #Context (archaeology) #Econometrics #Economics #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Epistemology #Meaning (existential) #Outcome (game theory) #Policy Transfer and Learning #Political science #Politics #Positive economics #Psychology #Scope (computer science) #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Social psychology

paper · doi:10.1177/0010414009331724

published in Comparative Political Studies 42(9), 1143-1166 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2009/04/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Political scientists largely agree that causal mechanisms are crucial to understanding causation. Recent advances in qualitative and quantitative methodology suggest that causal explanations must be contextually bounded. Yet the relationship between context and mechanisms and this relationship's importance for causation are not well understood. This study defines causal mechanisms as portable concepts that explain how and why a hypothesized cause, in a given context, contributes to a particular outcome. In turn, it defines context as the relevant aspects of a setting in which an array of initial conditions leads to an outcome of a defined scope and meaning via causal mechanisms. Drawing from these definitions is the argument that credible causal explanation can occur if and only if researchers are attentive to the interaction between causal mechanisms and context, regardless of whether the methods employed are small-sample, formal, statistical, or interpretive.

Citations

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