Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Sets: Agenda for a Research Approach and a Data Analysis Technique

“Qualitative Comparative Analysis” (QCA) is an increasingly applied methodological tool in comparative social sciences. It is well suited for the analysis of causally complex claims framed in terms of necessity and sufficiency. This article presents the epistemology of QCA and discusses its applicability to social science research questions. It also illustrates some of the features that have recently been added to this set of methodological tools. This article is best read in close conjunction with Schneider and Wagemann’s “Standards of Good QCA Practice,” the next paper in this journal issue.

[1]  Philip A. Schrodt.  Fuzzy-Set Social Science. By Charles C. Ragin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. 352p. $48.00 cloth, $20.00 paper. , 2002, American Political Science Review.

[2]  Charles C. Ragin.  MAKING COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS COUNT , 2007 .

[3]  Dirk Berg-Schlosser,et al.  Multi-Value QCA (mvQCA) , 2009 .

[4]  Carsten Q. Schneider,et al.  Reducing complexity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): Remote and proximate factors and the consolidation of democracy , 2006 .

[5]  Gary Goertz,et al.  Assessing the Trivialness, Relevance, and Relative Importance of Necessary or Sufficient Conditions in Social Science , 2006 .

[6]  Benoît Rihoux,et al.  Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) : State of the Art and Prospects , 2004 .

[7]  Jason Seawright.  Assumptions, causal inference, and the goals of QCA , 2005 .

[8]  Douglas Dion,et al.  Evidence and Inference in the Comparative Case StudyEvidence and Inference in the Comparative Case Study , 1998 .

[9]  Neal Caren,et al.  TQCA A Technique for Adding Temporality to Qualitative Comparative Analysis , 2005 .

[10]  Bear F. Braumoeller.  Hypothesis Testing and Multiplicative Interaction Terms , 2004, International Organization.

[11]  Benoît Rihoux,et al.  Innovative Comparative Methods for policy Analysis. Beyond the Quantitative-Qualitative Divide , 2006 .

[12]  J. Mahoney.  Strategies of Causal Inference in Small-N Analysis , 2000 .

[13]  Benoît Rihoux,et al.  Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) As an Approach , 2009 .

[14]  J. H. Goldthorpe,et al.  Current Issues in Comparative Macrosociology: A Debate on Methodological Issues , 1997 .

[15]  Charles C. Ragin,et al.  Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis to Study Causal Order , 2008 .

[16]  B. Rihoux,et al.  L'analyse Quali-Quantitative Comparée. Une 'troisième voie' au service de la politique comparée , 2004 .

[17]  Bear F. Braumoeller.  Causal Complexity and the Study of Politics , 2003, Political Analysis.

[18]  Charles C. Ragin,et al.  Between Complexity and Parsimony: Limited Diversity, Counterfactual Cases, and Comparative Analysis. , 2005 .

[19]  Kyle C. Longest,et al.  Fuzzy: A Program for Performing Qualitative Comparative Analyses (QCA) in Stata , 2008, The Stata Journal: Promoting communications on statistics and Stata.

[20]  Claudius Wagemann.  Qualitative Comparative Analysis und Policy-Forschung , 2008 .

[21]  Jason Seawright,et al.  Qualitative comparative analysis vis-à-vis regression , 2005 .

[22]  Carsten Q. Schneider.  IT MIGHT LOOK LIKE A REGRESSION EQUATION ... BUT IT’S NOT! AN INTUITIVE APPROACH TO THE PRESENTATION OF QCA RESULTS , 2007 .