Uneven Development: Causal Explanations and Counterfactuals with Structural Depth

What does a deep structural causal explanation for uneven development deliver ? To answer this question, we must ask: How are relatively deeper scientific explanations to be distinguished from superficial or shallower ones? Furthermore, what roles can counterfactual analysis play in social sciences and policy making which can help overcome uneven and unequal development? For a competent, morally motivated scientific policy maker in Development Economics, it is important to avoid inflicting harm and promote the common good. The purpose of this paper is to clarify how the idea of depth can play a role in finding the more "approximately true" explanation through causal comparisons and counterfactual conditionals that are scientifically salient in principle. In doing so, we must also be able to avoid inflicting harm and promote the common good. It is not an exhaustive treatment but rather focuses on a few aspects that may be the most critical in evaluating the explanatory strengths of a theory in the social sciences. It presents on the critical side a general argument which stresses the need for going beyond the Humean focus on just constant conjunction and temporal succession. On the positive side---and in contradistinction with Hume--- it develops a scientific realist argument for deep causality in development studies and social sciences in general on the epistemological, ontological and ethical side. It attempts to elucidate via an extensive example from research in the political economy of development how these ends can be achieved in a topic-specific manner when explanations in political economy and other social sciences can be judged by the scientific realist criterion of causal depth. In this particular case, an "intentional" and methodologically individualist neoclassical explanation is contrasted with a "structural" dual-dual approach as rival theories purporting to explain the same set of phenomena. Finally, avoiding harmful policies and aiding in making policies for advancing the common good are more ...