Decision Cases in Western Democracies

Abstract

There is a large body of research about decision cases in Western democracies. Unfortunately, the individual case studies are widely scattered so that the research has little cumulative effect. We present an effort to construct a data bank for which existing case studies are coded according to a uniform scheme. This presentation is done at a relatively early stage so that changes can still be made in response to unanticipated problems or different theoretical perspectives. The article gives the rationale for the data bank, addresses the problem of the units of analysis, enumerates the variables contained in the data bank, and illustrates for what theoretical questions the data can be used.