Individual skill
govern-theory-building
Use when building the argument and theoretical contribution of a Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions manuscript — to theories of the state, institutions, the policy process, bureaucracy, governance networks, and accountability, with portability across cases and disciplined concept formation. Builds the argument; it does not test it.
Governance-Journal-Skills/skills/govern-theory-building/SKILL.md
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- Last checked
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- academic-writing Repository topic
- agent-skills Repository topic
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# Theory Building (govern-theory-building)
A *Governance* contribution is judged by what it adds to how we understand **governing** — the state,
institutions, the policy process, bureaucracy, governance networks, accountability. The argument must be
sharp enough to test (`govern-research-design`) and **portable** enough to matter beyond one case. This
skill builds the argument and its concepts; it does not run the empirics.
## When to trigger
- Stating the core argument, mechanism, and scope conditions
- A reviewer said the theory is "ad hoc," "just a description," or "won't travel"
- Defining or refining a concept for comparative use
- Specifying what the theory predicts that rivals do not
