On the Applicability of the Most Similar Systems Design and the Most Different Systems Design in Comparative Research

Anckar, Carsten

doi:10.1080/13645570701401552

Cited by 210 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…A most different systems approach, as we have applied in this comparative case analysis, has proven useful in testing a causal relationship across http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss2/art21/ various contexts, and may be used in a similar vein for further testing of more specific causal relationships, such as between a specific change strategy (for example, the framing of policy windows) and policy change. A complementary approach would be a most similar systems approach that aims at explaining different outcomes (in our case, either major policy change or stability) within very similar systems (Anckar 2008).…”

Section: Research Agendamentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy Entrepreneurs and Change Strategies: Lessons from Sixteen Case Studies of Water Transitions around the Globe

Meijerink¹,

Huitema²

2010

E&S

196

178

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Section: Research Agendamentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy Entrepreneurs and Change Strategies: Lessons from Sixteen Case Studies of Water Transitions around the Globe

Meijerink¹,

Huitema²

2010

E&S

196

178

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“…As much as possible, chosen cases matched control variables; this allowed us to assess the impact of adaptation framings on implementation outcomes. Second, we verified whether the relationships observed were robust to situational variation in the context of implementation, by conducting the same analysis on a very different case that was chosen in an industrialized country with high adaptive capacity (Anckar 2008). Adaptive capacity was approximated using the human development index (Malik 2013), which, according to Füssel (2010), accurately represents the economic, social, and institutional coping capacity of a country.…”

Section: Case Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Adaptation Policy Paradox: the Implementation Deficit of Policies Framed as Climate Change Adaptation

Dupuis¹,

Knoepfel²

2013

E&S

105

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ABSTRACT. The implementation of adaptation policies suffers from barriers and limits; even though adaptation is now set on the political agendas of developed and developing countries, surprisingly few examples of concrete policy realizations are found in comparative assessments. We investigate how the framings of adaptation as a policy problem can relate to tractability issues in implementation. We distinguish three framings of adaptation: climate change adaptation (CCA), climate variability adaptation (CVA), and vulnerability-centered adaptation (VCA) that imply conflicting interpretations of the collective problem to be solved and the goals to be attained through policy solutions. Through the methodology of comparative case studies, we conduct an empirical analysis of three implementation processes in India and Switzerland, and examine how adaptation framings translate into formal policy design and concrete policy realizations. We find that, regardless of the adaptive capacity of the country where implementation takes place, the CCA framing meets more tractability issues than the VCA framing. Therefore, we discuss the paradox that the innovative and additional CCA types of policies, advocated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), are more likely to face a deficit in implementation according to our analysis.

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“…The Most Similar Systems Design (or Mill's Method of Difference) suggests to compare cases which are as similar as possible, except with regard to the dependent variable. The ambition is to keep constant the highest possible number of independent variables (Anckar 2008;Yin 2009, 64-67).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Europeanisation should meet international constructivism: the Nordic Plus group and the internalisation of political conditionality by France and the United Kingdom

Felice¹

2017

The Europeanisation of Development Policy

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This article is a plausibility probe for the significance of international constructivist 'mediating factors' to explain variation in Europeanization outcomes. The article applies a Most Similar Systems Design (or Mill's Method of Difference) to show that the United Kingdom has internalized political conditionality to a larger extent than France at least partially because it has been the object of stronger socialization pressures within the Nordic Plus Group. The articles contributes to the literature on Europeanization and development cooperation in two important ways. First, it enlarges its scope of analysis, both geographically (beyond new European Union Member States) and thematically (beyond simple measures of aid quality and/or quantity).Second, it emphasizes the importance of international (versus domestic) mediating factors. The empirical analysis focuses on three cases of aid sanctions in response to human rights abuses and democratic setbacks:

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On the Applicability of the Most Similar Systems Design and the Most Different Systems Design in Comparative Research

Cited by 210 publications

References 21 publications

Policy Entrepreneurs and Change Strategies: Lessons from Sixteen Case Studies of Water Transitions around the Globe

Policy Entrepreneurs and Change Strategies: Lessons from Sixteen Case Studies of Water Transitions around the Globe

The Adaptation Policy Paradox: the Implementation Deficit of Policies Framed as Climate Change Adaptation

Europeanisation should meet international constructivism: the Nordic Plus group and the internalisation of political conditionality by France and the United Kingdom

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