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This article illustrates how the inductive use of process tracing enables us to understand the final outcome of a series of democratic reforms: the reduction of the presidential term from seven to five years and the modification of the electoral calendar (2000-2001) in France, and the electoral and constitutional reforms in Italy (2003-2006). Based on inductive reasoning and on a sequential method, the results presented in this article demonstrate concretely how the method of process tracing allows us to discover two distinct causal mechanisms: credit claiming (including the variety of different interests mobilised) and reform packages (including the way in which they allow for consensus to be reached by an otherwise divided majority).