ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at two increasingly popular explanatory research strategies: case research and historical research. The case method has been a popular research approach for more than fifty years; Whelan (1989) traced the case approach as far back as 1948, when a planning committee was formed at Harvard University to develop guidelines for applying the method to research in public administration. Under the leadership of Harold Stein, the original committee became the Inter-University Case Program (IUCP) in 1951. The IUCP published a text with twenty-six cases just a year later (Stein 1952). In the introduction to that casebook, Stein defined the public administration case as “a narrative of the events that constitute or lead to a decision or group of related decisions by . . . public administrators” (xxvii). The historical approach has been around even longer. Both are discussed in this chapter.
