Methodological Problems in the Study of Nation-Building: Behaviorism and Historicist Solutions in Political Science*

What is it about?

Objective. The goal of this article is to highlight the methodological problems involved in the study of nation-building and propose solutions. I identify three categories of methodological problems that flow from respective practices in social science research: (i) inferring intentions from observed behavior or outcomes; (ii) relying on census data to infer a country’s ethnic diversity; and (iii) arbitrary periodization and anachronism, that is, attributing certain actions to concepts and/or phenomena that were not politically salient or even understood by the actors under study. Methods. I conduct a meta-analysis of the body of evidence I used in my recent work, which systematically documents nation-building policies toward noncore groups in the post World War I Balkans. Results. In each section, I use empirical examples to illustrate the methodological pitfalls that may result from these practices and suggest strategies to overcome these difficulties. Conclusion. Certain applications of behaviorism can lead to wrongheaded theories and introduce bias in our analysis. Needless to say, these problems are not unique to the study of nation-building. Scholars are invited to adopt historicist solutions to these problems.

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