What is the systematic method for identifying causes developed by English philosopher John Stuart Mill (1872)? Describe the approach.
What will be an ideal response?
Some comparative researchers use a systematic method for identifying causes, developed by the English philosopher John Stuart Mill (1872), called the method of agreement (see Exhibit 9.6). The core of this approach is the comparison of nations (cases) in terms of similarities and differences on potential causal variables and the phenomenon to be explained. For example, suppose three nations that have all developed democratic political systems are compared in terms of four socioeconomic variables hypothesized by different theories to influence violent crime. If the nations differ in terms of three of the variables but are similar in terms of the fourth, this is evidence that the fourth variable influences violent crime.
The features of the cases selected for comparison have a large impact on the ability to identify influences using the method of agreement. Cases should be chosen for their difference in terms of key factors hypothesized to influence the outcome of interest and their similarity on other, possibly confounding factors (Skocpol, 1984). For example, in order to understand how unemployment influences violent crime, you would need to select cases for comparison that differ in unemployment rates so that you could then see if they differ in rates of violence (King et al., 1994).
Exhibit 9.6 John Stuart Mill’s Method of Agreement
aD is considered the cause of the outcome.
Method of agreement A method proposed by John Stuart Mill for establishing a causal relation in which the values of cases that agree on an outcome variable also agree on the value of the variable hypothesized to have a causal effect, whereas they differ in terms of other variables
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