เปรียบเทียบวิธี

	Most Different Systems Design	Process Tracing
สาขาวิชา	Political Science	การวัดทางจิตวิทยา
ตระกูล	Process / pipeline	Latent structure
ปีกำเนิด	1970	2005
ผู้ริเริ่ม	John Stuart Mill (method of agreement); Przeworski & Teune (systems framing)	Alexander George, Andrew Bennett
ประเภท	Small-N comparative case-selection design	Qualitative causal inference
แหล่งต้นตำรับ	Przeworski, A., & Teune, H. (1970). The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry. New York: Wiley-Interscience. ISBN: 9780471701422	Bennett, A., & Checkel, J. T. (Eds.). (2015). Process Tracing: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool. Cambridge University Press.
ชื่อเรียกอื่น	MDSD, Most different cases design, Mill's method of agreement, Diverse systems design	—
ที่เกี่ยวข้อง	3	5
สรุป	The most different systems design (MDSD) is a small-N comparative strategy that selects cases that differ on as many background characteristics as possible yet share the same outcome. If wildly dissimilar cases nonetheless converge on the same result, the explanation cannot lie in the many features on which they differ — it must lie in whatever they have in common. Grounded in John Stuart Mill's method of agreement and named by Przeworski and Teune, it is the mirror image of the most similar systems design and a staple of comparative politics.	Process Tracing is a qualitative research method developed by George and Bennett (2005) for studying causal mechanisms and causal chains within individual cases. It involves examining the sequence of events and decision-making processes within a case to infer whether a hypothesized causal mechanism actually operated. Process tracing aims to strengthen causal inference in case studies by looking beyond correlation to understand how causes produce effects.