Qualitative Comparative Analysis using Fuzzy Sets (fsQCA)

One apparent limitation of the truth table approach is that it is designed for conditions that are simple presence/absence dichotomies (i.e., Boolean or “crisp” sets—see Chapter 3) or multichotomies (mvQCA—see Chapter 4). Many of the conditions that interest social scientists, however, vary by level or degree. For example, while it is clear that some countries are democracies and some are not, there is a broad range of in-between cases. These countries are not fully in the set of democracies, nor are they fully excluded from this set.