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Parties, Candidates and Citizens On-Line - Åbo Akademi

Parties, Candidates and Citizens On-Line - Åbo Akademi

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Focus now turns towards the studies which have found equalization of on-line<br />

party competition. The information in the truth table would yield the following Boolean<br />

expression:<br />

N=0 (Findings of equalization) when:<br />

aBcdE+ABcdE+aBCdE+ABCdE<br />

These terms can now be reduced to four-term expressions as follows:<br />

aBcdE combines with ABcdE to produce BcdE<br />

aBcdE also combines with aBCdE to produce aBdE<br />

ABcdE combines with ABCdE to produce ABdE<br />

aBCdE combines with ABCdE to produce BCdE<br />

These expressions can be further minimized into three-term expressions:<br />

BcdE combines with BCdE to produce BdE<br />

aBdE combines with ABdE to produce BdE<br />

The results of the QCA for the studies finding equalization result in the following final<br />

expression:<br />

E=BdE<br />

The studies of on-line party competition in which support for the equalization theory has<br />

been found have the following logical minimum conditions in common:<br />

1. The studies have used scaled measurement of website contents in studying<br />

countries with a long history of democratic status <strong>and</strong> an unrestricted on-line<br />

media environment alongside a restricted off-line media environment.<br />

Alternative analyses<br />

The results of two QCAs using alternative coding values for the variables ‘election system’<br />

<strong>and</strong> ‘media environment’ are briefly presented in this section (see Appendix C for full<br />

procedure). This serves to increase the validity of the findings in the main QCA<br />

(Jungerstam-Mulders 2003: 70-1; Peters 1998: 169-70). Put bluntly, the re-analyses were<br />

carried out in order to examine whether the findings of the study would have changed<br />

49

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