Parties, Candidates and Citizens On-Line - Åbo Akademi

dramatically if a different coding had been applied for cases numbered 7, 8 and 9
concerning the election system variable. Likewise concerning cases numbered 1, 6, 11, 13-
14 and 16 for the media environment variable.
The result of the QCA with an alternative coding for the election system-variable
produced the following final expressions:
F = 1 when abcde+BCDE+AcDe and F = 0 when BdE
These expressions contained the expressions concerning normalization, Ace+BCDE, and
matched the exact expression concerning equalization, BdE, found in the main QCA
analysis. Arguably, even though one new expression emerged for findings of
normalization, this result increases the validity of the results from the main QCA.
The results for the QCA with an alternative coding for the media environmentvariable
yielded the following final solutions:
F = 1 when BCE+Acde and F = 0 when AdE+BdE
Again, either expressions, or large parts thereof, concerning normalization found in the
main QCA can be traced in the findings of the alternative QCA. Regarding findings of
equalization, the expression from the original QCA is exactly matched alongside one new
expression. It should, however, be noted that the alternative QCA for the media
environment produced two contradictory expressions where the same primitive Boolean
expression had produced different outcomes.
Even so, the two alternative QCA analyses have served to strengthen the validity
of the findings of the original QCA. The original conditions for findings of normalization
and equalization remained as parts of the new solutions, even though different variable
coding was used.
Discussion & conclusions
The purpose of this analysis was to systematically explore the conditions, both country
specific and methodological, for findings of either normalization or equalization. This was
carried out through a meta-analysis of existing studies of on-line party competition. Metaanalyses
were previously argued to be especially well suited for theory-development
(Peters 1998: 160-1). Concerning the normalization and equalization theories, then: what
can be learned from the results?
Firstly, the findings could be regarded as an initial mapping of the conditions in
which support for the theories have been found. As compared to the previous
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