Recapitulations and Contributions

Abstract

The empirical research program does not by itself pretend to provide any conclusive answers to substantial research questions on the politics of caveats. The essence of the programmatic ambition is to reason directions on how to study and research a particular political phenomenon. The contribution of the empirical research program is assessed on its capacity to inspire, direct, and facilitate research: The program be judged on its capacity to reason precise conceptual constructs capable of distinguishing the phenomenon of caveats from adjacent phenomena and recognize different categories of caveats. The program assessed on the coherence and the capacity of the analytical framework to guide the selection of theory by which arguments are reasoned and empirical propositions deduced. The utility of the research program depends on the usefulness of the directions for the gathering and analyses of data while taking into account the particular attributes of the research field in question, as well as the ontological content of the analytical framework suggested. Finally, the empirical research program assessed on its capacity to inspire new and interesting research questions. The concluding chapter summarizes the several contributions of the programmatic effort, and discusses remaining shortcomings and challenges.