About

James Mahoney is a Gordon Fulcher Professor in Decision-Making, a Professor of Sociology, and a Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. His research interests include comparative sociology, development, and methodology, with a focus on political development, Latin America, and comparative-historical analysis. Mahoney is known for his contributions to social science methodology and comparative-historical research, having authored and co-edited several influential books such as 'Advances in Comparative-Historical Analysis,' 'A Tale of Two Cultures: Qualitative and Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences,' and 'Colonialism and Postcolonial Development: Spanish America in Comparative Perspective.' He has received multiple awards from the American Sociological Association and the American Political Science Association for his methodological work. Mahoney has served as President of the Qualitative and Multi-Method Research Section and the Politics and History Section of APSA, and as Chair of the Comparative and Historical Sociology Section and the Development Section of the ASA. He has also held leadership roles including Associate Chair of Political Science and Chair of Sociology at Northwestern University.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Mathematical economics
• Epistemology
• Mathematics
• Economics
• Psychology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Sociology
• Management science
• Social psychology
• Philosophy
• Operations research
• Econometrics
• Data science

Selected publications

• Dietrich Rueschemeyer

  Studies in Comparative International Development · 2026-03-01

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Public Relations Writing

  2025-02-03 · 1 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  Public Relations Writing is an undergraduate communication and public relations textbook. It positions writing for public relations in the context of strategic planning, and is based on traditional communication writing principles, including for news and digital media. The book illustrates how writing for all public relations tools reflects the concepts that inform professional planning and practice. This book, based on the author's wide professional practice and tertiary teaching experiences, has been widely used in international undergraduate teaching and learning. This fourth edition continues to treat clear, concise and accurate writing for this profession as integral to all aspects of professional practice and as a skill that is not confined to media release writing. Among the book's strengths are the student exercises, including international cases, which are based on real-world examples, and references to ethical practice. This book provides a holistic approach to learning about writing in this profession. While its focus is on writing, this holistic approach, which includes material on planning a communication strategy, makes it an ideal text for introductory subjects at university as well as for specialist writing units. While it is primarily grounded in Australian practice, the book is written in line with accepted international approaches to public relations writing, including the principles of journalism’s 'news writing', and contains case studies from other countries. This book appeals to audiences in early-year university students studying public relations and marketing communication. It is also suitable for professional practitioners seeking to enhance their writing skills.

  PublisherDOI

• The Cold War as a label, meaning, and referent

  Social Science History · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract In this article, I discuss the Cold War as a label, meaning, and referent in academic research. I consider how the label “the Cold War” focuses attention on the conflict between the United States and USSR and draws attention away from the Global South. I show how academics often use the category the Cold War as a diminished subtype of interstate war, with the adjective cold calling attention to the absence of direct military combat. I analyze the meanings and referents associated with different ways of “casing” the Cold War: a case of cold war, a case of interstate rivalry, and a case of empire building. I also examine the separate meanings of the Cold War when it is treated as a world-historical time versus an event . Using the essays in this special issue, I examine how sociologists study the Cold War as an empirical referent. I find that the cultural orientation of sociology emphasizes symbolic and performative aspects of the Cold War that are not traditionally emphasized in work on the Cold War.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Causal Analysis in Comparative-Historical Analysis

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2024-03-19

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This chapter discusses the logic of comparative-historical analysis (CHA). It begins by comparing CHA to other approaches concerned with causal analysis. CHA is a type of case-oriented research that is focused on both identifying particular actual causes in specific cases, and generalizing about actual causes within a well-defined scope. The chapter then considers how a concern with actual causation distinguishes CHA from those approaches that seek to identify the average causal effects of variables within large populations of cases. It looks at two kinds of CHA research questions (outcome-oriented and cause-oriented questions) and two kinds of CHA counterfactuals (cause-varying and context-varying counterfactuals). The chapter also explores the use of causal chains, mechanisms, and process tracing in CHA explanations. Finally, it addresses issues related to scope conditions and case selection, before examining narrative analysis by studying how case-specific narratives are linked to more general causal arguments.

  PublisherDOI

• Causal vs. Conceptual Heterogeneity: Reply to Turner

  Philosophy of the Social Sciences · 2023-07-31

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Professor Turner’s reply to my article focuses on the ways in which set-theoretic analysis can be used to help solve problems of causal heterogeneity in social science research. By contrast, I discuss the ways in which set-theoretic analysis can be used to help solve problems of conceptual heterogeneity . I identify conceptual heterogeneity as a ubiquitous problem that is disguised by psychological essentialism. The seriousness of this problem must be recognized for scholars to appreciate the advantages of constructivist set-theoretic analysis for the social sciences.

  PublisherDOI

• Constructivist Set-Theoretic Analysis: An Alternative to Essentialist Social Science

  Philosophy of the Social Sciences · 2023-05-24 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Psychological essentialism is a cognitive bias through which human beings conceive the entities around them as having inner essences and basic natures. Social scientists routinely generate flawed inferences because their methods require the truth of psychological essentialism. This article develops set-theoretic analysis as a scientific-constructivist approach that overcomes the bias of psychological essentialism. With this approach, the “sets” of set-theoretic analysis are mental phenomena that establish boundaries and identify similarities and differences among entities whose natural kind composition is not known. The approach is illustrated through a consideration of research on intelligence, race, and poverty in the United States.

  PublisherDOI

• O130 / #985 NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION (DBS) FOR OPIOID USE DISORDER: PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF SAFETY, FEASIBILITY, AND EFFICACY CLINICAL TRIAL

  Neuromodulation Technology at the Neural Interface · 2022-10-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• THE USE OF INTEGRATED EXPERIENTIAL ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE MINORITY PARTICIPATION IN THE APPLIED GEOSCIENCES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2022-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Author's Response: The Logic of Social Science and Contemporary Political Science

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2022-04-11

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  I would like to thank the five commentators in this symposium (Jennifer Cyr, Gary Goertz, Alan M. Jacobs, Carsten Q. Schneider, Hillel David Soifer) for their engagement with and thoughtful discussions of The Logic of Social Science (LSS). Their comments focus mainly on Part I (Ontology and Epistemology) and Part II (Methodological Tools) of the book, and I will also concentrate on these parts.

  PublisherDOI

• Agency and Nation-State Making in Latin American History

  Latin American Research Review · 2022-10-11 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This essay reviews the following works: Bandits and Liberals, Rebels and Saints: Latin America since Independence. By Alan Knight. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022. Pp. xvi + 423. $35.00 paperback. ISBN: 9781496229786. Latecomer State Formation: Political Geography and Capacity Failure in Latin America. By Sebastián Mazzuca. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021. Pp. xii + 448. $50.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780300248951. Republics of Knowledge: Nations of the Future in Latin America. By Nicola Miller. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. Pp. ix + 304. $42.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780691176758. The Mexican Revolution’s Wake: The Making of a Political System, 1920–1929. By Sarah Osten. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. xiv + 290. $29.99 paperback. ISBN: 9781108401289. Five Republics and One Tradition: A History of Constitutionalism in Chile, 1810–2020. By Pablo Ruiz-Tagle. Translated by Ana Luisa Goldsmith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. x + 314. $110.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781108835312. Liberalism as Utopia: The Rise and Fall of Legal Rule in Post-colonial Mexico, 1820–1900. By Timo H. Schaefer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. x + 248. $29.99 paperback. ISBN: 9781316640784. A Woman, a Man, a Nation: Mariquita Sánchez, Juan Manuel de Rosas, and the Beginnings of Argentina. By Jeffrey M. Shumway. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2019. Pp. xvii + 334. $34.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780826360908. Los juegos de la política: Las independencias hispanoamericanas frente a la contrarrevolución. By Marcela Ternavasio. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores, 2021. Pp. 264. Arg$1,720 paperback. ISBN: 9789878010809. A Life Together: Lucas Alamán and Mexico, 1792–1853. By Eric Van Young. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021. Pp. xii + 833. $50.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780300233919.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: Long-Run Development and the Legacy of Spanish Colonialism in Latin America

  NSF · $49k · 2005–2007

Frequent coauthors

• Gary Goertz

  Film Independent

  33 shared

• Nadta Le Marer

  Hammersmith Hospital

  16 shared

• Phagocytosis Martinez-Pomares

  Landstinget i Kalmar län

  16 shared

• William Dunn

  16 shared

• U Rajput

  Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  16 shared

• Arne Lundblad

  Lund University

  16 shared

• Y Shaper

  Hammersmith Hospital

  16 shared

• B H A N Joel Shaper

  Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  16 shared

Awards & honors

• Several awards for his work on methodology from the American…
• His book on Colonialism and Postcolonial Development receive…