Policy Learning via Case Analysis : Towards a More Systematic Approach

The case study method has lost its lustre over the years and is now considered old-fashioned rather than fashionable. Yet, in practice, it still looms large in social science research and features prominently in graduate training, notably in the area of administration, both private and public. Longevity should not be equated with renewal, however. The technique, as applied in management settings, has experienced virtually no evolution. There is considerable scope for rendering its use more systematic, particularly on the policy front. Social science research methods have experienced dramatic growth in recent years. There has been a proliferation of new techniques and substantial refinement of old ones. While some disciplines within the field have seen faster progress than others, none has lagged significantly behind. Across the board, one can observe a heightened sense of scientific consciousness which manifests itself throughout the research process. This does not necessarily amount to a willingness to embrace unconditionally the positivist approach — indeed, alternative paradigms continue to thrive: (e.g. interpretive social science and critical social science; Neuman, 2000) — and quantitative (as distinct from qualitative) tools of social inquiry. Nevertheless, the quest for methodological sophistication, broadly defined, has gained considerable momentum. Neither business nor public administration have diverged from this pattern. The former has been in the forefront of the e#orts to reinforce the scientific foundations of social research and the latter has been moving in that direction (O’Sullivan, Rassel and Berner, 2002), albeit unevenly (at a healthy pace in the United States, but in a more restrained manner elsewhere). In this area, however, the attention lavished on new techniques has arguably led to a loss of interest in old ones. Specifically, the case study method, which still qualifies as an essential investigative and pedagogical tool, has e#ectively been relegated to the analytical periphery. That is not to suggest that this time-honoured approach has been completely abandoned. Quite the contrary, it continues to be relied upon extensively by scholars in the field of administration, in research contexts and in the classroom. In the public policy domain, for example, one of the most admired and pedagogically useful explorations is the (recycled) dissection by Allison (Allison and Zelikow, 1999) of high-level American decision-making during the Cuban missile crisis. In a very inspiring case study, of the purely qualitative variety, Allison has endeavoured to explain strategic adaptation in a bureaucratic setting in terms of Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Hong Kong Hitotsubashi Journal of Commerce and Management 38 (2003), pp.29-39. Hitotsubashi University