Towards a Comparative Analysis of Democratic Innovations: Lessons from a pilot fs-QCA of Participatory Budgeting

While there has been a proliferation of academic interest in ‘democratic innovations’, most empirical analysis tends to rely on single case studies. Very little attention has been given to either comparative analysis of innovations or the conditions under which they emerge and are sustained. Recent studies of participatory budgeting (PB) have begun to utilise cross-case analysis in an attempt to explain divergent outcomes (e.g. Sintomer et al 2005, Wampler 2007, Avritzer 2009). This paper argues that the comparative analysis of democratic innovations could be moved forward through the application of the relatively novel technique of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA) as developed by Ragin (2000, 2008). An indicative pilot study of a small number of PBs is offered to identify the potential (and pitfalls) of using fs/QCA to evaluate the conditions under which PB is institutionalised effectively.