Facing this dilemma, a large number of political scientists have opted, reasonably I think, for focused simplicity. When this leads to oversimplification, however, particularly when it leads us to ignore underlying processes and concentrate exclusively on predicting outcomes, I believe the cost is great. In much of my work, I make a strong pitch for a class of methods that allow focused realism. Computational modeling enjoys many of the advantages of other formal approaches, while relaxing some of the technical restrictions.
Computational models are theories rendered as computer programs.
The powerpoint presentations from that seminar may be found here . Last updated February 20, 2001.