Abstract Process tracing systematizes qualitative historical description to enable inferences about token causal processes. Contrary to some claims it does not provide a rival account of causation to large-n studies rather it answers questions posed at a different level of detail. Large-n and small-n analyses pose questions at different levels of analysis. By drawing an analogy with the external and internal validity of experiments we can view many historical disputes in terms of what causal aspects are foregrounded (as a “cause”) and what backgrounded (as “background conditions”). Process tracing examines detailed processes within type-mechanistic explanation. While it can demonstrate that specific mechanisms do not apply to the case under consideration, case studies on their own cannot test theoretically generated mechanistic claims, nor empirical generalization. Debates over what constitutes critical junctures usually concern the level of appropriate explanation and what aspects in a causal account are to be foregrounded.
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