The configurational approach in comparative social policy analysis : advances in capturing the impact of globalisation on social policymaking in moderate-n research designs

Although relatively young, the configurational approach is now firmly established as part of the methodological toolkit for comparative political economists. While debates about the advantages and limitations of the configurational approach are ongoing, there has been a proliferation of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) types for moderate-N research designs. Rather than adding to these debates, our focus in this chapter rests on an assessement of QCA applications adressing the theoretical impact of globalisation processes on social policymaking. We conduct a systematic literature review of empirical studies during the last three decades to illustrate how a small but increasing number of QCA studies try to capture the causal effects of globalisation in comparative perspective. However, theoretical innovation within those studies has remained limited; few fully comply with the ‘best practice’ prescriptions by proponents of the configurational approach. We conclude by charting a way forward for QCA in comparative political economy and suggest how researchers could combine QCA techniques with other mainstream research methods in this field.