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The article discusses administrative burdens faced by individuals interacting with state policies, programs, and services, highlighting various costs such as learning, compliance, and psychological costs. It emphasizes how administrative burdens negatively impact the take-up of public services, particularly affecting vulnerable populations and exacerbating inequality. The research explores the causes and consequences of administrative burdens, focusing on state actions, citizen experiences, and outcomes, with a diverse range of methodological approaches used in the studies presented. The article underscores the importance of understanding administrative burdens in citizen-state interactions for social welfare research and policy effectiveness. [Extracted from the article]

The concept of 'explanation' has attracted considerable attention in the social sciences, and particularly within political science. However, scholars are not always familiar with what explaining political phenomena means, let alone with what it entails for developing sound causal arguments. This article introduces Craig Parsons' typology of explanation before assessing its value for the causal analysis of political behaviour and processes. As argued, despite its limitations, this typology clearly maps four types of explanation in political science (institutional, ideational, structural and psychological) while helping scholars to combine them more rigorously when needed. This is why Parsons' typology has the potential to move political scientists to the 'next level' as far as 'explanation' is concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic review and synthesis methods have gained wide acceptance within the social sciences and, as a result, many postgraduate students now consider using them for their thesis or dissertation research. However, students are rarely aware of all the concrete implications that their decision entails. This reflective narrative reports the experience of a political science student who began to conduct a systematic review as part of his Ph.D. dissertation but who did not complete it. The aim of this article is to identify challenges and lessons learned from this experience and to formulate recommendations for postgraduate students who wish to make an informed choice with respect to the use of these methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]