Individual skill

bjps-theory-building

Use when building the theoretical argument of a British Journal of Political Science (BJPS) manuscript into a contribution of general interest — whether the work is formal/game-theoretic, empirical with explicit mechanisms, interpretive, or normative. BJPS rewards a clear, portable argument over a bare finding. Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.

British-Journal-of-Political-Science-Skills/skills/bjps-theory-building/SKILL.md

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# Theory & Argument Building (bjps-theory-building)

At BJPS a result is not a contribution until it is attached to an **argument the field can use
elsewhere** — across countries, cases, and subfields. This skill turns findings into theory: explicit
mechanisms, scope conditions, and observable implications, in the idiom appropriate to your kind of
work.

## When to trigger

- The empirics are strong but the "so what / why" is thin
- A reviewer said the paper is "atheoretical," "ad hoc," or "just a finding"
- You need to state mechanisms, assumptions, and scope conditions explicitly
- Formal modeling: deciding what to model, what to assume, and what the model buys you
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