Using Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis in Comparative Political Communication Research: Applying Fuzzy Set Theoretic Thinking to Small-N Case-Oriented Research

Abstract

There is a fine tradition of small-N comparative case-oriented research in the field of political communication and while work in this tradition has provided numerous important insights its explanatory power has often been hampered by a reliance on description and a lack of suitable alternative techniques for cross-case analysis. The aim of this chapter is to rectify this situation by introducing an alternative analytic method that draws on the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative comparative research, namely fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). FsQCA, developed by Charles Ragin some 25 years ago (for a synoptic history see Marx et al., 2013), is a set-theoretic method ideal for small-N comparisons (four to 15 cases) which are too small for effective use of conventional statistical tech- niques and too large for descriptive cross-case comparisons (see Schneider and Wage mann, 2012). In addition, fsQCA also brings a fresh approach to thinking about causation for both quantitative- and qualitative- minded scholars. Instead of seeing causes as working independently of each other with each having an autonomous effect — a net effect so to speak -fsQCA, as will be detailed later, sees causes as conjunctural, equifinal and asymmetric.