What question did this study set out to answer?

This paper aims to address the challenge of evaluating causal relationships within individual cases using process tracing.

April 15, 2026

Process Tracing and the Problem of Evaluating Causal Relationships Within a Case

Puntos clave

This paper aims to address the challenge of evaluating causal relationships within individual cases using process tracing.
Analyzes existing process-tracing study by Vesla Weaver.
Introduces a feature-based approach to causal evaluation.
Explores observable outcomes as evidence of hypothesized relationships.
Presents a partial solution to the evaluation problem in process tracing.
Demonstrates the feature-based approach on specific outcomes from the case study.
Examines connections to other frameworks in assessing causal claims.

Resumen

Process tracing method in the social sciences seek to assess hypothesized causal mechanisms in individual cases, but practitioners face a problem: How to use within-case evidence to evaluate singular causal relationships within hypothesized mechanism. This paper presents a partial solution to this problem by treating detailed features of the outcomes as observable consequences of the hypothesized causal relationships, given suitable auxiliary assumptions. This approach is then illustrated through analysis of a process-tracing study by Vesla Weaver. The paper concludes by examining how the feature-based approach relates to other frameworks for assessing singular causal claims.

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Process Tracing and the Problem of Evaluating Causal Relationships Within a Case

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