Carsten Q Schneider
Biographic Data
| ID | 99132 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Carsten Q Schneider |
| GIVEN NAMES | Carsten Q |
| FAMILY NAME | Schneider |
| SIGNATURE | SCHNEIDER C Q |
| AFFILIATIONS | Central European University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5651-4156 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 733 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Strongmen” Don't Redistribute
Illiberal leaders—sometimes called strongmen—often campaign on being more effective. The tradeoff presented to citizens is straightforward: they promise to cut through the indecisiveness and gridlock of democratic debate and give people what they want. Such leaders often use the rhetoric of economic grievances, corruption, and redistribution, but do they follow through on those promises? We answer this question using data from 38,557 speeches by …
A Robustness Test Protocol for Applied QCA
The robustness of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) results features high on the agenda of methodologists and practitioners. This article aims at advancing this debate on several fronts. First, in line with the extant literature, we take a comprehensive view on robustness arguing that decisions on calibration, consistency, and frequency thresholds should all be tested. Second, we introduce the notion of 'sensitivity range' as the range of va…
Introducing the comparative study of electoral systems in Tunisia
Although public opinion research has gained prominence in the Middle East and North Africa region since 2011, data on electoral behaviour and political attitudes are scarce and rarely have a comparative focus. This research note introduces a new post-election survey conducted after the 2019 Tunisian elections. The project contributes to the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) database. In its 26-year history no country other than Israel…
Qualitative Comparative Analysis Using R
A comprehensive introduction and teaching resource for state-of-the-art Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) using R software. This guide facilitates the efficient teaching, independent learning, and use of QCA with the best available software, reducing the time and effort required when encountering not just the logic of a new method, but also new software. With its applied and practical focus, the book offers a genuinely simple and intuitive r…
The Qualitative Transparency Deliberations
In recent years, a variety of efforts have been made in political science to enable, encourage, or require scholars to be more open and explicit about the bases of their empirical claims and, in turn, make those claims more readily evaluable by others. While qualitative scholars have long taken an interest in making their research open, reflexive, and systematic, the recent push for overarching transparency norms and requirements has provoked ser…
Set‐theoretic Multimethod Research
Set‐theoretic multimethod research (SMMR) using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) formalizes the choice of cases based on a truth table analysis. We make three recommendations for improving SMMR. First, current standards can lead to faulty case selection if causal inference on a conjunction is the goal. Case selection needs to take into account that the non‐members of a conjunction might be empirically diverse and that only selected types of…
Realists and Idealists in QCA
The sole purpose of the enhanced standard analysis (ESA) is to prevent so-called untenable assumptions in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). One source of such assumptions can be statements of necessity. QCA realists, the majority of QCA researchers, have elaborated a set of criteria for meaningful claims of necessity: empirical consistency, empirical relevance, and conceptual meaningfulness. I show that once Thiem’s (2017) data mining appro…
A Unifying Framework for Causal Analysis in Set-Theoretic Multimethod Research
The combination of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) with process tracing, which we call set-theoretic multimethod research (MMR), is steadily becoming more popular in empirical research. Despite the fact that both methods have an elected affinity based on set theory, it is not obvious how a within-case method operating in a single case and a cross-case method operating on a population of cases are compatible and can be combined in empirical…
Legitimation, cooptation, and repression and the survival of electoral autocracies
Real Differences and Overlooked Similarities
Jack Paine (JP) and Alrik Thiem, Michael Baumgartner, and Damien Bol (TBB) provide diametrically opposed answers to the hotly debated question as to whether set-theory-based methods constitute a family of methods sui generis or whether not only set methods can be subsumed under the existing statistical framework, but also, if so, should be abandoned. I find TBB’s argument convincing that due to their different mathematical foundations, these two …
Assessing ESA on What It Is Designed for
Case Studies Nested in Fuzzy-set QCA on Sufficiency
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is a method for cross-case analyses that works best when complemented with follow-up case studies focusing on the causal quality of the solution and its constitutive terms, the underlying causal mechanisms, and potentially omitted conditions. The anchorage of QCA in set theory demands criteria for follow-up case studies that are different from those known from regression-based multimethod research (MMR). Bas…
Forms of welfare capitalism and education-based participatory inequality
Scholars studying democracy are just beginning to investigate the specifically political consequences of rising socio-economic inequalities. This paper analyses whether the degree of political inequality between social groups is shaped by features of the welfare capitalist system. Specifically, we hypothesize that more labour protection and social support decrease participatory inequality via more evenly distributed resources and engagement betwe…
Combining QCA and Process Tracing in Set-Theoretic Multi-Method Research
Set-theoretic methods and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in particular are case-based methods. There are, however, only few guidelines on how to combine them with qualitative case studies. Contributing to the literature on multi-method research (MMR), we offer the first comprehensive elaboration of principles for the integration of QCA and case studies with a special focus on case selection. We show that QCA's reliance on set-relational c…
Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences
Aus dem Dt. übers. - "Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and other set-theoretic methods distinguish themselves from other approaches to the study of social phenomena by using sets and the search for set relations. In virtually all social science fields, statements about social phenomena can be framed in terms of set relations, and using set-theoretic methods to investigate these statements is therefore highly valuable. This book guides reade…
Comparative Politics in Central and Eastern Europe
This article offers a new empirical perspective on the state of Comparative Politics (CP) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We present findings on the authors, methods, and epistemology of CP publications in the most relevant journals from eleven countries in the region. The major finding is that CP is rather marginal in CEE Political Science. Furthermore, CP articles predominantly focus on the authors’ country of origin, use off-the-shelf dat…
Determinants of democratization
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Sets
Qualitative Comparative Analysis' (QCA) is an increasingly applied methodological tool in comparative social sciences. It is well suited for the analysis of causally complex claims framed in terms of necessity and sufficiency. This article presents the epistemology of QCA and discusses its applicability to social science research questions. It also illustrates some of the features that have recently been added to this set of methodological tools.…
Standards of Good Practice in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Sets
As a relatively new methodological tool, QCA is still a work in progress. Standards of good practice are needed in order to enhance the quality of its applications. We present a list from A to Z of twenty-six proposals regarding what a 'good' QCA-based research entails, both with regard to QCA as a research approach and as an analytical technique. Our suggestions are subdivided into three categories: criteria referring to the research stages befo…
An Introduction to Crisp Set QCA, with a Comparison to Binary Logistic Regression
The authors focus on the dichotomous crisp set form of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The authors review basic set theoretic QCA methodology, including truth tables, solution formulas, and coverage and consistency measures and discuss how QCA (a) displays relations between variables, (b) highlights descriptive or complex causal accounts for specific (groups of) cases, and (c) expresses the degree of fit. To help readers determine when QC…
The Consolidation of Democracy
This book investigates the successes and failures in consolidating those democratic regimes that emerged in Europe and Latin America in the last quarter of the 20th century. The theoretical approach developed combines the most prominent political-institutional and socio-structural approaches to explaining the Consolidation of Democracy (CoD). Reinterpreting conventional claims, Schneider’s comparative analyses of 32 countries indicates that the d…
Necessary Conditions
Consolidation of Democracy
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) und Fuzzy Sets
Reducing complexity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)
Comparative methods based on set theoretic relationships such as ‘fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis’ (fs/QCA) represent a useful tool for dealing with complex causal hypotheses in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions under the constraint of a medium‐sized number of cases. However, real‐world research situations might make the application of fs/QCA difficult in two respects – namely, the complexity of the results and the phenomeno…
Standards of Good Practice in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Sets
As a relatively new methodological tool, QCA is still a work in progress. Standards of good practice are needed in order to enhance the quality of its applications. We present a list from A to Z of twenty-six proposals regarding what a 'good' QCA-based research entails, both with regard to QCA as a research approach and as an analytical technique. Our suggestions are subdivided into three categories: criteria referring to the research stages befo…
Combining QCA and Process Tracing in Set-Theoretic Multi-Method Research
Set-theoretic methods and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in particular are case-based methods. There are, however, only few guidelines on how to combine them with qualitative case studies. Contributing to the literature on multi-method research (MMR), we offer the first comprehensive elaboration of principles for the integration of QCA and case studies with a special focus on case selection. We show that QCA's reliance on set-relational c…
Reducing complexity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)
Comparative methods based on set theoretic relationships such as ‘fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis’ (fs/QCA) represent a useful tool for dealing with complex causal hypotheses in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions under the constraint of a medium‐sized number of cases. However, real‐world research situations might make the application of fs/QCA difficult in two respects – namely, the complexity of the results and the phenomeno…
An Introduction to Crisp Set QCA, with a Comparison to Binary Logistic Regression
The authors focus on the dichotomous crisp set form of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The authors review basic set theoretic QCA methodology, including truth tables, solution formulas, and coverage and consistency measures and discuss how QCA (a) displays relations between variables, (b) highlights descriptive or complex causal accounts for specific (groups of) cases, and (c) expresses the degree of fit. To help readers determine when QC…
The Qualitative Transparency Deliberations
In recent years, a variety of efforts have been made in political science to enable, encourage, or require scholars to be more open and explicit about the bases of their empirical claims and, in turn, make those claims more readily evaluable by others. While qualitative scholars have long taken an interest in making their research open, reflexive, and systematic, the recent push for overarching transparency norms and requirements has provoked ser…
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Sets
Qualitative Comparative Analysis' (QCA) is an increasingly applied methodological tool in comparative social sciences. It is well suited for the analysis of causally complex claims framed in terms of necessity and sufficiency. This article presents the epistemology of QCA and discusses its applicability to social science research questions. It also illustrates some of the features that have recently been added to this set of methodological tools.…
Realists and Idealists in QCA
The sole purpose of the enhanced standard analysis (ESA) is to prevent so-called untenable assumptions in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). One source of such assumptions can be statements of necessity. QCA realists, the majority of QCA researchers, have elaborated a set of criteria for meaningful claims of necessity: empirical consistency, empirical relevance, and conceptual meaningfulness. I show that once Thiem’s (2017) data mining appro…
Liberalization, transition and consolidation
This article measures the process of democratization by subdividing it into three components: the liberalization of autocracy, the mode of transition and the consolidation of democracy. The 30 or so countries included in the study are situated in different world regions, mainly southern and eastern Europe, south and central America and the former Soviet Union – all of which have experienced regime transitions since 1974. The study also includes a…
Case Studies Nested in Fuzzy-set QCA on Sufficiency
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is a method for cross-case analyses that works best when complemented with follow-up case studies focusing on the causal quality of the solution and its constitutive terms, the underlying causal mechanisms, and potentially omitted conditions. The anchorage of QCA in set theory demands criteria for follow-up case studies that are different from those known from regression-based multimethod research (MMR). Bas…
A Unifying Framework for Causal Analysis in Set-Theoretic Multimethod Research
The combination of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) with process tracing, which we call set-theoretic multimethod research (MMR), is steadily becoming more popular in empirical research. Despite the fact that both methods have an elected affinity based on set theory, it is not obvious how a within-case method operating in a single case and a cross-case method operating on a population of cases are compatible and can be combined in empirical…
A Robustness Test Protocol for Applied QCA
The robustness of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) results features high on the agenda of methodologists and practitioners. This article aims at advancing this debate on several fronts. First, in line with the extant literature, we take a comprehensive view on robustness arguing that decisions on calibration, consistency, and frequency thresholds should all be tested. Second, we introduce the notion of 'sensitivity range' as the range of va…
Real Differences and Overlooked Similarities
Jack Paine (JP) and Alrik Thiem, Michael Baumgartner, and Damien Bol (TBB) provide diametrically opposed answers to the hotly debated question as to whether set-theory-based methods constitute a family of methods sui generis or whether not only set methods can be subsumed under the existing statistical framework, but also, if so, should be abandoned. I find TBB’s argument convincing that due to their different mathematical foundations, these two …
Necessary Conditions
Forms of welfare capitalism and education-based participatory inequality
Scholars studying democracy are just beginning to investigate the specifically political consequences of rising socio-economic inequalities. This paper analyses whether the degree of political inequality between social groups is shaped by features of the welfare capitalist system. Specifically, we hypothesize that more labour protection and social support decrease participatory inequality via more evenly distributed resources and engagement betwe…
Introducing the comparative study of electoral systems in Tunisia
Although public opinion research has gained prominence in the Middle East and North Africa region since 2011, data on electoral behaviour and political attitudes are scarce and rarely have a comparative focus. This research note introduces a new post-election survey conducted after the 2019 Tunisian elections. The project contributes to the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) database. In its 26-year history no country other than Israel…
Assessing ESA on What It Is Designed for
Comparative Politics in Central and Eastern Europe
This article offers a new empirical perspective on the state of Comparative Politics (CP) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We present findings on the authors, methods, and epistemology of CP publications in the most relevant journals from eleven countries in the region. The major finding is that CP is rather marginal in CEE Political Science. Furthermore, CP articles predominantly focus on the authors’ country of origin, use off-the-shelf dat…
Determinants of democratization
Liberalization, transition and consolidation
This article measures the process of democratization by subdividing it into three components: the liberalization of autocracy, the mode of transition and the consolidation of democracy. The 30 or so countries included in the study are situated in different world regions, mainly southern and eastern Europe, south and central America and the former Soviet Union – all of which have experienced regime transitions since 1974. The study also includes a…
Reducing complexity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)
Comparative methods based on set theoretic relationships such as ‘fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis’ (fs/QCA) represent a useful tool for dealing with complex causal hypotheses in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions under the constraint of a medium‐sized number of cases. However, real‐world research situations might make the application of fs/QCA difficult in two respects – namely, the complexity of the results and the phenomeno…
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) und Fuzzy Sets
The Consolidation of Democracy
This book investigates the successes and failures in consolidating those democratic regimes that emerged in Europe and Latin America in the last quarter of the 20th century. The theoretical approach developed combines the most prominent political-institutional and socio-structural approaches to explaining the Consolidation of Democracy (CoD). Reinterpreting conventional claims, Schneider’s comparative analyses of 32 countries indicates that the d…
Necessary Conditions
Consolidation of Democracy
An Introduction to Crisp Set QCA, with a Comparison to Binary Logistic Regression
The authors focus on the dichotomous crisp set form of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The authors review basic set theoretic QCA methodology, including truth tables, solution formulas, and coverage and consistency measures and discuss how QCA (a) displays relations between variables, (b) highlights descriptive or complex causal accounts for specific (groups of) cases, and (c) expresses the degree of fit. To help readers determine when QC…
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Sets
Qualitative Comparative Analysis' (QCA) is an increasingly applied methodological tool in comparative social sciences. It is well suited for the analysis of causally complex claims framed in terms of necessity and sufficiency. This article presents the epistemology of QCA and discusses its applicability to social science research questions. It also illustrates some of the features that have recently been added to this set of methodological tools.…
Standards of Good Practice in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Sets
As a relatively new methodological tool, QCA is still a work in progress. Standards of good practice are needed in order to enhance the quality of its applications. We present a list from A to Z of twenty-six proposals regarding what a 'good' QCA-based research entails, both with regard to QCA as a research approach and as an analytical technique. Our suggestions are subdivided into three categories: criteria referring to the research stages befo…
Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences
Aus dem Dt. übers. - "Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and other set-theoretic methods distinguish themselves from other approaches to the study of social phenomena by using sets and the search for set relations. In virtually all social science fields, statements about social phenomena can be framed in terms of set relations, and using set-theoretic methods to investigate these statements is therefore highly valuable. This book guides reade…
Comparative Politics in Central and Eastern Europe
This article offers a new empirical perspective on the state of Comparative Politics (CP) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We present findings on the authors, methods, and epistemology of CP publications in the most relevant journals from eleven countries in the region. The major finding is that CP is rather marginal in CEE Political Science. Furthermore, CP articles predominantly focus on the authors’ country of origin, use off-the-shelf dat…
Determinants of democratization
Combining QCA and Process Tracing in Set-Theoretic Multi-Method Research
Set-theoretic methods and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in particular are case-based methods. There are, however, only few guidelines on how to combine them with qualitative case studies. Contributing to the literature on multi-method research (MMR), we offer the first comprehensive elaboration of principles for the integration of QCA and case studies with a special focus on case selection. We show that QCA's reliance on set-relational c…
Forms of welfare capitalism and education-based participatory inequality
Scholars studying democracy are just beginning to investigate the specifically political consequences of rising socio-economic inequalities. This paper analyses whether the degree of political inequality between social groups is shaped by features of the welfare capitalist system. Specifically, we hypothesize that more labour protection and social support decrease participatory inequality via more evenly distributed resources and engagement betwe…
Real Differences and Overlooked Similarities
Jack Paine (JP) and Alrik Thiem, Michael Baumgartner, and Damien Bol (TBB) provide diametrically opposed answers to the hotly debated question as to whether set-theory-based methods constitute a family of methods sui generis or whether not only set methods can be subsumed under the existing statistical framework, but also, if so, should be abandoned. I find TBB’s argument convincing that due to their different mathematical foundations, these two …
Assessing ESA on What It Is Designed for
Case Studies Nested in Fuzzy-set QCA on Sufficiency
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is a method for cross-case analyses that works best when complemented with follow-up case studies focusing on the causal quality of the solution and its constitutive terms, the underlying causal mechanisms, and potentially omitted conditions. The anchorage of QCA in set theory demands criteria for follow-up case studies that are different from those known from regression-based multimethod research (MMR). Bas…
Legitimation, cooptation, and repression and the survival of electoral autocracies
Realists and Idealists in QCA
The sole purpose of the enhanced standard analysis (ESA) is to prevent so-called untenable assumptions in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). One source of such assumptions can be statements of necessity. QCA realists, the majority of QCA researchers, have elaborated a set of criteria for meaningful claims of necessity: empirical consistency, empirical relevance, and conceptual meaningfulness. I show that once Thiem’s (2017) data mining appro…
A Unifying Framework for Causal Analysis in Set-Theoretic Multimethod Research
The combination of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) with process tracing, which we call set-theoretic multimethod research (MMR), is steadily becoming more popular in empirical research. Despite the fact that both methods have an elected affinity based on set theory, it is not obvious how a within-case method operating in a single case and a cross-case method operating on a population of cases are compatible and can be combined in empirical…
Set‐theoretic Multimethod Research
Set‐theoretic multimethod research (SMMR) using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) formalizes the choice of cases based on a truth table analysis. We make three recommendations for improving SMMR. First, current standards can lead to faulty case selection if causal inference on a conjunction is the goal. Case selection needs to take into account that the non‐members of a conjunction might be empirically diverse and that only selected types of…
Qualitative Comparative Analysis Using R
A comprehensive introduction and teaching resource for state-of-the-art Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) using R software. This guide facilitates the efficient teaching, independent learning, and use of QCA with the best available software, reducing the time and effort required when encountering not just the logic of a new method, but also new software. With its applied and practical focus, the book offers a genuinely simple and intuitive r…
The Qualitative Transparency Deliberations
In recent years, a variety of efforts have been made in political science to enable, encourage, or require scholars to be more open and explicit about the bases of their empirical claims and, in turn, make those claims more readily evaluable by others. While qualitative scholars have long taken an interest in making their research open, reflexive, and systematic, the recent push for overarching transparency norms and requirements has provoked ser…
Introducing the comparative study of electoral systems in Tunisia
Although public opinion research has gained prominence in the Middle East and North Africa region since 2011, data on electoral behaviour and political attitudes are scarce and rarely have a comparative focus. This research note introduces a new post-election survey conducted after the 2019 Tunisian elections. The project contributes to the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) database. In its 26-year history no country other than Israel…
A Robustness Test Protocol for Applied QCA
The robustness of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) results features high on the agenda of methodologists and practitioners. This article aims at advancing this debate on several fronts. First, in line with the extant literature, we take a comprehensive view on robustness arguing that decisions on calibration, consistency, and frequency thresholds should all be tested. Second, we introduce the notion of 'sensitivity range' as the range of va…
Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research (18 works) · Computer Science (17 works) · Political science (15 works) · Qualitative comparative analysis (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Economics (10 works) · Machine learning (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Mathematics (9 works) · Sociology (9 works)