CPS Theory Building
Constructs portable, testable theoretical mechanisms and scope conditions tailored for Comparative Political Studies manuscripts.
CPS Theory Building provides structured academic guidance to help political scientists turn descriptive puzzles into portable, falsifiable comparative theories for Comparative Political Studies (CPS) and related journals. It guides researchers through formalizing causal mechanisms into structured actor-incentive-behavior-outcome chains, establishing rigorous scope conditions, generating observable implications that distinguish hypotheses from rival accounts, and articulating comparative statics across regions and regimes.
Key Features
01Formalizes causal mechanisms into portable, named causal chains from actor incentives to political outcomes
02Generates observable implications that explicitly distinguish the proposed theory from rival explanations
03Defines strict scope conditions outlining exactly where the mechanism holds and where it fails
04Articulates comparative statics and actor-level micro-foundations for macro-level regime or institutional claims
05Applies standardized portability tests to ensure arguments generalize across comparative cases and regions
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Use Cases
01Translating single-country or regional case study findings into generalizable comparative political theories
02Revising manuscripts in response to reviewer feedback noting that the paper is descriptive or lacks clear theoretical mechanisms
03Drafting the theoretical framework and falsifiable hypotheses before designing empirical tests