Yamasaki {QCAGUI} | R Documentation |
The Yamasaki data frame has 6 rows and 6 columns.
In Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of social data, the generation of parsimonious explanatory equations is enhanced by the inclusion of ''logical configurations''. Even if this procedure proves to be very useful, it also raises various methodological issues. Among them, the tricky problem of ''contradictory simplifying assumptions'' has remained largely unexplored. Yet the careful control of this obstacle is crucial for any QCA to be successful, not only because contradictory assumptions are inducing wrong conclusions, but also because their resolution can generate most interesting results. Hence, our contribution aims at enlightening this difficulty, as well as designing an efficient way to overcome it. In this perspective, we start from data collected for a comparative research on ''the political feasibility of an unconditional basic income'' in six OECD countries (1980-2002). After having briefly stated the core elements of the research question, six operational variables are defined (section 1). On this basis, we conduct a Boolean analysis and comment the various 'feasibility scenarios' generated by the QCA 3.0 software (section 2). Starting from these first results, we identify contradictory simplifying assumptions used by the software, and discuss possible solutions to this problem. New results are then generated (section 3). In the conclusion, we shortly discuss the general implications of this methodological problem
data(Yamasaki)
The dataset contains the following columns:
POSTMAT | the level of postmodern values in a society takes the value ''1'' in the Dutch |
and Finnish cases, and ''0'' in the others | |
NONGHENT | the absence of a Ghent system is coded ''1'' and ''0'' when the Ghent system |
exists in the country | |
MOVEMENT | in the presence of a social movement advocating Basic Income, the variable |
will be coded ''1'' | |
UNITARY | based on the Lijphart index (1.0 to 5.0, from unitary to federal and |
decentralised states), the variable is coded ''0'' for cases in the three | |
following categories: semi-federal states (3.0), federal and centralized | |
states (4.0), and federal and decentralized states (5.0), and ''1'' otherwise. | |
SOCIAL | based on Esping-Andersen's categorisation of welfare regimes, the variable |
is coded ''1'' for non-liberal countries and ''0'' otherwise | |
AGENDA | the outcome variable, coded ''1'' when Basic Income has been considered as a |
serious alternative at the governmental level |
Vanderborght, Yannick and Yamasaki, Sakura 2003 The Problem of Contradictory Simplifying Assumptions in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), Paper presented at the ECPR General onference, 18-21 Sept., Marburg, Germany
Vanderborght, Yannick and Yamasaki, Sakura 2004 Des cas logiques...contradictoires? Un piege de l'AQQC dejoue a travers l'etude de la faisabilite politique de l'Allocation Universelle, Revue Internationale de Politique Comparee, Vol.11, pp.51-66