Parties, Candidates and Citizens On-Line - Åbo Akademi

There were no contradicting cases found in Table 3. The information contained in Table
3 can now be analyzed using the Boolean technique. The unreduced Boolean expression
for the findings of normalization reads as follows:
N=1 (Findings of normalization) when:
Abcde+AbcDe+ABcDe+aBCDE+ABCDE
The QCA now proceeds with the reduction of these five-term expressions into four-term
expressions by combining expressions which only differ in one term:
Abcde combines with AbcDe to produce Abce
AbcDe combines with ABcDe to produce AcDe
aBCDE combines with ABCDE to produce BCDE
In the following step, these reduced expressions would be minimized into even simpler
terms. None of these expressions can, however, be combined in the manner used in the
first step. This might possibly be due to the fact that not all theoretical combinations of
variables were represented with actual cases (cf. Jungerstam-Mulders 2003: 81). One can,
nonetheless, consider parts of the expressions Abce and AcDe redundant. Both of these
expressions produce the same outcome and have the terms Ace in common. Thus, the
terms b and D can be considered irrelevant to the outcome. Ace seems to be a sufficient
condition for findings of normalization. The expression BCDE cannot be further
reduced, and the result of the QCA would read
N=Ace+BCDE
This result indicates that the studies which have resulted in findings of normalization of
on-line party competition have been studies
48
1. using dichotomous measurement of the party websites’ contents in countries with
a plurality election system and medium- or low level of development.
OR
2. using scaled measurement of party website contents in countries with a long
history of democratic status, high development and media environments which are
unrestricted both off- and on-line.