Introduction -- Learning from each other causal inference and American political development -- A developmental approach to historical causal inference -- The inferential opportunity of specificity how institutional and historical detail can enable causal explanations and inference -- American Political Development and new challenges of causal inference -- Causes Theories and the Past in Political Science1 -- Formal Models Causal Inference and American Political Development -- Causal inference and American political development Contrasts and complementarities -- Applying regression discontinuity designs to American political development -- Whats APD Got to Do with It -- Causal Inference and American Political Development Common Challenges and Opportunities -- Approaching Historical Data Collection with Causal Inference in Mind -- Natural Experiments and Historical Social Science The View from HPE -- On the Relationship Between History and Political Science David Stasavage.

This volume discusses the application of causal inference techniques in the study of American political development (APD). Within political science, a movement focused on increasing the credibility of causal inferences (CI) has gained considerable traction in recent years. While CI has been incorporated extensively into most disciplinary subfields, it has not been applied often in the study of APD. This edited volume considers ways in which scholars of CI and APD can engage in mutually beneficial ways to produce better overall research.