Parties, Candidates and Citizens On-Line - Åbo Akademi

F = 1 when A+B
In the studies where normalization of on-line party competition was found, either
visibility or on-line performance was skewed in favour of the major parties. For the
studies finding equalization, the QCA yielded the following primitive expressions:
F = 0 when Ab + ab
These terms could then be reduced to the term b. The on-line performance was equal
between major and minor parties in the studies where equalization was found. There was,
however, one primitive term present in the studies finding equalization, the term Ab,
represented by cases numbered 2-5, and 10 (see Table 2); which was also present in two
cases (numbered 1 and 13) where normalization was found. This would be troublesome
as the dependent variable is seemingly operationalized in a way that does not discriminate
between normalization and equalization. A further scrutiny of these contradictory cases
reveals that the two studies, cases 1 and 13, where normalization was found (Gibson et al.
2003; Margolis et al. 2003), both measured, and revealed, an off-line visibility heavily
skewed in favour of the major parties. In the contradictory cases finding equalization, offline
visibility was not measured. Consequently, through this further distinction, the
operationalization of the dependent variable does sufficiently discriminate normalization
and equalization (cf. Jungerstam-Mulders 2003: 71).
To summarize the discussion, the operationalizations of the variables are depicted
in Table 1.
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