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Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): State of the Art and Prospects
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Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): State of the Art and
Prospects
Benoît Rihoux
Université Catholique de Louvain
1
[## email not listed ## / http://www.compasss.org]
Charles C. Ragin
University of Arizona
[## email not listed ## / http://www.u.arizona.edu/%7Ecragin/ragin.htm]
Prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting
of the American Political Science Association,
Chicago, September 2 - September 5, 2004.
Panel 47-9
First draft - 27 Aug. 2004 - do not quote without the authors’ permission
Abstract :
This paper offers an advanced, conceptually oriented introduction to Qualitative Comparative Analysis – QCA (including its Fuzzy Sets extension), an overview of the current state of the art in QCA, and a discussion of best practices in the use of QCA, both general and more technical, with a special focus on QCA and counterfactual analysis. We begin by examining two analytic procedures commonly used by comparative researchers and contrast these techniques with correlational analysis, the main analytical engine of mainstream quantitative social science. We then discuss the state of the art of existing QCA applications, by trying to map the diversity and scope of these applications. Following this, we first lay out some more general guidelines to engage in a “good” QCA analysis. This is followed by a list of more specific, technical and procedural guidelines in the form of “best practices”. One of these guidelines has to do with the exploitation of “remainders”, i.e. non-observed configurations. This leads us to discuss more in-depth one of the most powerful features of QCA: counterfactual analysis. We conclude by sketching several of QCA's future prospects.
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With the support of the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS (Belgium).
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| | Authors: Rihoux, Benoît. and Ragin, Charles. |
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1
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): State of the Art and
Prospects
Benoît Rihoux
Université Catholique de Louvain
1
[## email not listed ## / http://www.compasss.org]
Charles C. Ragin
University of Arizona
[## email not listed ## / http://www.u.arizona.edu/%7Ecragin/ragin.htm]
Prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting
of the American Political Science Association,
Chicago, September 2 - September 5, 2004.
Panel 47-9
First draft - 27 Aug. 2004 - do not quote without the authors’ permission
Abstract :
This paper offers an advanced, conceptually oriented introduction to Qualitative
Comparative Analysis – QCA (including its Fuzzy Sets extension), an overview of the
current state of the art in QCA, and a discussion of best practices in the use of QCA, both
general and more technical, with a special focus on QCA and counterfactual analysis. We
begin by examining two analytic procedures commonly used by comparative researchers
and contrast these techniques with correlational analysis, the main analytical engine of
mainstream quantitative social science. We then discuss the state of the art of existing QCA
applications, by trying to map the diversity and scope of these applications. Following this,
we first lay out some more general guidelines to engage in a “good” QCA analysis. This is
followed by a list of more specific, technical and procedural guidelines in the form of “best
practices”. One of these guidelines has to do with the exploitation of “remainders”, i.e. non-
observed configurations. This leads us to discuss more in-depth one of the most powerful
features of QCA: counterfactual analysis. We conclude by sketching several of QCA's
future prospects.
1
With the support of the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS (Belgium).
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