qualitative comparative analysis
qualitative comparative analysis (QCA)The name given by Charles Ragin (The Comparative Method, 1987) to his proposed technique for solving the problems that are caused for comparative macrosociologists by the fact that they must often make causal inferences on the basis of only a small number of cases. The technique is based on the binary logic of Boolean algebra, and attempts to maximize the number of comparisons that can be made across the cases under investigation, in terms of the presence or absence of characteristics (variables) of analytical interest. Thus, for example, 18 cases (say, nation-states) involving 7 independent variables (presence or absence of economic recession, of an external threat to state security, and so on) might be examined in order to identify the casual factors involved in the emergence of revolutions, in this example yielding no fewer than 128 (27) different combinations of causal conditions. Ragin claims that...
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