Abductive Analysis in Qualitative and Multi-Method Political Science

This paper introduces an abductive framework for qualitative and multimethod political science. Abduction emphasizes an iterative dialogue between theory and observation, integrating principles of deductive hypothesis formulation with inductive theory evaluation. The paper begins by outlining relevant methodological debates. It then briefly discusses the methodological foundation, techniques for generating explanatory hypotheses, and strategies for hypothesis testing in abductive analysis. The insights and examples are drawn from non-interpretivist, theory-driven qualitative political science and sociology interested in causal explanation.