Congruence Analysis

Abstract

The core features and major advantages of small-N research are the researcher’s ability to collect a broad and diverse set of observations per case and the ability to reflect intensively on the relationship between empirical observation and abstract concepts. These features are used within the co-variation approach (COV) by operationalizing and scoring the dependent and independent variables in a context-sensitive way, by using diverse indicators for each variable and by applying diverse sources of empirical information for each indicator (triangulation). The causal-process tracing approach (CPT) takes further advantage of this fact by adding ‘causal-process observations’ to the ‘variable-scoring observation’ for drawing causal inferences. There is a further means of profiting from the multiplicity — and especially from the diversity — of observations per case in small-N research. The multiplicity and diversity of observations makes it possible to connect empirical cases to a rather large set of theories and these theories might be connected to different paradigmatic camps (see Chapter 1). This feature makes small-N research an appropriate approach for comparing and combining divergent theories and therefore an especially fruitful ground for theoretical innovation. In this chapter, we seek to present the foundations and major elements of such an endeavor.