Heuristics for the building of case studies

What I would like to hold as principles for my research (swap politics/political with energy), with a view of energy as a meso-sector, conditioned by and conditioning macro and micro level decisions.

The revolution in comparative politics started with a number of brave principles:

  • look beyond description to more theoretically relevant problems;
  • look beyond the single case to the comparison of many cases;
  • look beyond the formal institutions of government to political processes and political functions;
  • and look beyond the countries of Western Europe to the new nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Sidney Verba, "Some Dilemmas in Comparative Research," World Politics, Vol.20, No.1 (October 1967), pp.122-123.