Qualitative-comparative, set-theoretic and case-based methods

Claudius Wagemann

Chapter 4 in Handbook of Comparative Political Institutions, 2024, pp 51-64 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The chapter shows how important comparison is for the study of political institutions. It focuses on qualitative-comparative analysis (QCA) as the probably most standardized comparative method and illustrates six principles of comparative methods which are best visible in a QCA: (1) a property-based perspective on cases; (2) a configurative logic; (3) an equifinal understanding of causality; (4) a tendency towards y-centred research interests; (5) the researchers’ interests in specific cases; and (6) a specific view on inference, mainly focused on middle-range theories. Furthermore, various empirical studies which use QCA for an analysis on comparative political institutions are briefly introduced, demonstrating how well QCA fits their design. After a critical review of recent developments in QCA methodology, the perspective is amplified, once with regard to other methods using set theory, and once to other case-based methods. The conclusion presents the various methods with regard to their degree of standardization.

Keywords: Politics; and; Public; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781803929095.00011 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:21846_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().