Methods: Effectiveness Research
The research cluster “Methods” deals with the question of how the effects of political dealings can be recorded scientifically. The problem of being able to prove effectiveness crops up repeatedly in research practice in connection, for instance, to international relationships, when this deals with the success of external democracy promotion, sanctions or the effects of regimes.
With divergent goals and by means of very different methods and research designs, research attempts to illuminate the connection between causes and effects. Thus, on the one hand, the focus is on short-term cause-effect relationships and, on the other, on the greater historical development processes.
In the cluster, approaches from various scientific disciplines are discussed and attempts made to develop them further.
The results of the discussions are useful for IFSH’s own research and beyond that we intend to present an overview of the state of knowledge on effectiveness research in a book publication.