Abstract
This article highlights one of the major benefits of qualitative comparative methodology as applied within a “small-N” research design, namely its potential use for specifying the scope conditions of (theoretically competing) causal mechanisms. It is argued that the identification of set-theoretic relationships, multiple paths, and analytic efforts in typological mapping can make valuable contributions to the elaboration and further development of middle-range theory.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbott A.: Time Matters. On Theory and Method. University of Chicago Press (2001).
Aickin M. (2004). Millsian causation. Qual. Quant. 38: 533–545
Allison G.T. and Zelikow P. (1999). Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, 2nd ed. Longman, New York
Andersen, S.S.: “On a clear day you can see the EU”—Case Study Methodology in EU Research. ARENA—Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Working Paper No. 16/2003, (2003)
Aus J.P.: Logics of Decision-Making on Community Asylum Policy. A Case Study of the Evolvement of the Dublin II Regulation. ARENA—Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Working Paper No. 03/2006 (2006a)
Aus J.P.: Eurodac: A Solution Looking for a Problem? ARENA—Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo. Working Paper No. 09/2006 (2006b)
Becker H.S.: Cases, causes, conjunctures, stories, and imagery. In: Ragin C. C., Becker H. S. (eds.) What is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry, pp. 205–216. Cambridge University Press (1992)
Bennett A. and George A.L. (2005). Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. The MIT Press, Cambridge and Boston
Braumoeller B.F. (2003). Causal complexity and the study of politics. Political Analysis 11: 209–233
Bunge M. (2004). How does it work? The search for explanatory mechanisms. Philos. Soc. Sci. 34: 182–210
Chan S. (2003). Explaining war termination: A Boolean analysis of causes. J. Peace Res. 40: 49–66
Checkel J.T. and Moravcsik A. (2001). A constructivist research programme in EU Studies?. Euro. Union Politics 2: 219–249
Checkel, J.T.: Social mechanisms and the quality of cooperation: Are Europe and the EU really that different? ARENA—Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo. Working Paper No. 8/ 2004 (2004)
(2000a). Council Regulation (EC) No 2725/2000 of 11 December 2000 concerning the establishment of “Eurodac” for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of the Dublin Convention. Official J. Euro. Commun. L 316: 1–10
(2000b). Council decision of 28 September 2000 establishing a European Refugee Fund (2000/596/EC). Official J. Euro. Commun. L 252: 12–18
(2003). Council Regulation (EC) No 343/2003 of 18 February 2003 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national. Official J. Euro. Union L 50: 1–10
Eckstein H. (1975). Case study and theory in political science. In: Greenstein, F.I. and Polsby, N.W. (eds) Strategies of Inquiry Handbook of Political Science, vol. 7, pp 97–137. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA
Elster J. (1983). Explaining technical change. Norwegian University Press, Oslo
Elster, J.: A plea for mechanisms. In: Hedstrøm, P., Swedberg, R. (eds.) Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory, pp. 45–73. Cambridge University Press, (1998)
Etzioni A. (2000). Social norms: Internalization, persuasion and history. Law Soc. Rev. 34: 157–178
Geertz C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz. Basic Books, New York
Glaser B.G. and Strauss A.L. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory. de Gruyter, New York
Hacking, I.: Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science. Cambridge University Press (1983)
Halmos P.R. (1960). Naive Set Theory. van Nostrand, Princeton NJ
Jupille J., Caporaso J.A. and Checkel J.T. (2003). Integrating institutions: Rationalism, constructivism, and the study of the European Union. Comp. Polit. Stud. 36: 7–41
King, G., Keohane, R.O., Verba, S.: Designing Social Inquiry. Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton University Press (1994)
Lewis J. (2003). Informal integration and the supranational construction of the council. J. Euro. Publ. Policy 10: 996–1019
Lieberson, S.: Small N’s and big conclusions: An examination of the reasoning in comparative studies based on a small number of cases. In: Ragin, C.C., Becker H. S. (eds.) What is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry, pp. 105–118. Cambridge University Press (1992)
Lijphart A. (1971). Comparative politics and the comparative method. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 65: 682–693
Mahoney J. (2000). Strategies of causal inference in small-N analysis. Sociol. Methods Res. 28: 387–424
March J.G. and Olsen J.P. (1989). Rediscovering Institutions. The Organizational Basis of Politics. The Free Press, New York
March J.G. and Olsen J.P. (1995). Democratic Governance. The Free Press, New York
March, J.G., Olsen, J.P.: The logic of appropriateness. In: Moran, M., Rein, M., Goodin, R.E. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy. pp. 689–708. Oxford University Press (2006)
Marini M.M. and Singer B. (1988). Causality in the social sciences. Sociol. Methodol. 18: 347–409
Mattila M. (2004). Contested decisions: Empirical analysis of voting in the European Union Council of Ministers. Euro. J. Polit. Res. 43: 29–50
Mayntz R. (2004). Mechanisms in the analysis of social macro-phenomena. Philos. Soc. Sci. 34: 237–259
McKeown T.J. (1999). Case studies and the statistical worldview: review of King, Keohane and Verba’s “Designing social inquiry: scientific inference in qualitative research”. Int. Org. 53: 161–190
Merton R.K. (1949). Social Theory and Social Structure. Free Press, Glencose, IL
Mill J.S. (1868). A System of Logic – Ratiocinative and Inductive. Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation, vol. I. Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer, London
Mjøset L. (2000). Stein Rokkan’s thick comparisons. Acta Sociol. 43: 381–397
Mjøset, L.: Theory: conceptions in the social sciences. In: Smelser N.J., Bates P.B. (eds.) The International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, pp. 15641–15647. Elsevier Science Ltd. (2001)
Moore B. (1967). Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy—Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Penguin Press, London
Newsome G.L. (2003). The debate between current versions of covariation and mechanism approaches to causal inference. Philos. Psychol. 16: 87–107
Nissen S. (1998). The case of case studies: on the methodological discussion in comparative political science. Qual. Quant. 32: 399–418
Olsen J.P. (2002). The many faces of europeanization. J. Common Market Stud. 40: 921–952
Pennings P. (2005). The diversity and causality of welfare state reforms explored with fuzzy-sets. Qual. Quant. 39: 317–339
Ragin C.C. (1987). The Comparative Method. Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA
Ragin C.C. (1999). Using qualitative comparative analysis to study causal complexity. Health Serv. Res. 34: 1225–1239
Ragin, C. C.: Fuzzy-Set Social Science. University of Chicago Press (2000)
Rokkan, S.: State Formation, Nation-Building, and Mass Politics in Europe: The Theory of Stein Rokkan. In: Flora, P., Kuhnle, S., Urwin, D. Oxford University Press (1999)
Scharpf F. W. (2000). Institutions in comparative policy research. Comp. Polit. Stud. 33: 762–790
Schimmelfennig, F.: The EU, NATO and the Integration of Europe. Rules and Rhetoric. Cambridge University Press (2003a)
Schimmelfennig F. (2003b). Strategic action in a community environment: the decision to enlarge the European Union to the East. Comp. Polit. Stud. 36: 156–183
Sigelman L. and Gadbois G.H. (1983). Contemporary comparative politics. An inventory and assessment. Comp. Polit. Stud. 16: 275–305
Skocpol, T.: States and Social Revolutions. A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China. Cambridge University Press (1979)
Skocpol T. and Somers M. (1980). The uses of comparative history in macrosocial inquiry. Comp. Stud. Soc. History 22: 174–197
Steel D. (2004). Social mechanisms and causal inference. Philos. Soc. Sci. 34: 55–78
Thielemann E.R. (2003). Between interests and norms: explaining burden-sharing in the European Union. J. Refugee Stud. 16: 253–273
Varone F., Rothmayr C. and Montpetit E. (2006). Regulating biomedicine in Europe and North America: A qualitative comparative analysis. Euro. J. Polit. Res. 45: 317–343
Verschuren P.J. (2001). Holism versus reductionism in modern social science research. Qual. Quant. 35: 389–405
Walker H.A. and Cohen B.P. (1985). Scope statements: imperatives for evaluating theory. Am. Sociol. Rev. 50: 288–301
Weber, M.: Economy and Society. An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, vol. 1. In: Roth, G. Wittich C, University of California Press, Berkeley (1978)
White P.A. (2000). Causal attribution and Mill’s methods of experimental inquiry: past, present and prospect. Brit. J. Soc. Psychol. 39: 429–447
Zuern M. and Checkel J.T. (2005). Getting socialized to build bridges: Constructivism and rationalism, Europe and the nation-state. Int. Org. 59: 1045–1079
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Aus, J.P. Conjunctural causation in comparative case-oriented research. Qual Quant 43, 173–183 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-007-9104-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-007-9104-4