Barnhurst / Qualitative Methods / 9
Comparative Case Studies
Another early genre of qualitative political science techniques,
comparative case studies, developed along with historical and
theoretical approaches and came into its own by the middle 20th
century, dedicated primarily to comparing the governments either
of different countries or, especially in the United States, of
different states. Although debates went on(Waldo, 1975), between
those who preferred a more theoretical political science and
those who preferred a more professional, government- and citizen-
focused political science, the central methodological assumption
of both parties emphasized measurement, with natural science
providing the ideal model. This quantitative current advanced
among those conducting case studies. Like other techniques, the
case study by the 1970s became involved in quantification
(Lijphart, 1971, Collier, 1993), which spread so extensively that
recent case-study-methods books focus on quantitative procedures
rather than on qualitative processes or interpretation (e.g., Van
Evera, 1997).
The 1970s Critical Movement
The social unrest emerging from the late 1960s through the
1970s had a deep and broad influence on other social sciences,
including sociology, anthropology, and communication, but less so
on political science. The anti-behavioralist movement beginning
in the late 1960s proposed a politically responsible science
based on values and engaged in the life of society, and Marvin
Surkin and Alan Wolfe (1970) documented the emergence from the
Convention