Back to Square One: A Reply to Munck, Paine, and Schneider. (May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thiem, Alrik; Baumgartner, Michael
• Is Part Of: Comparative political studies. Volume 49:Number 6(2016:May)
• Page Start: 801
• Page End: 806
• Publication Date: 2016-05
• Subjects: Boolean algebra -- Configurational Comparative Methods (CCMs) -- Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) -- Set-Theoretic Methods (STMs); Political science -- Periodicals; 320.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0010414015626455
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0010-4140

Abstract

We thank the editors of Comparative Political Studies for having invited us to join this symposium. Rather than addressing separate points made by Munck, Paine, and Schneider, we focus on two related problems that unite their pieces, that are of high relevance beyond this symposium, and that we have addressed only indirectly in our original article. The first problem concerns the over-inflation of the Boolean concept of necessity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), the second one ignorance about the formalities of the theory of causation which QCA rests on.