Reaction Paper on Chapter III "Case-oriented Comparative Methods" in the Book "The Comparative Method" Written by Charles C.Ragin

Charles C. Ragin has changed the field of comparative studies when his book has reached the reader. In chapter 3 of this book he argues that “the case-oriented approach works well when the number of relevant cases is relatively small” (p. 49). Regarding this and agreeing with Goldthorpe, I put forward following thesis for this reaction paper: small N is not a problem of method but the problem of data.
First, it is very important to emphasize that small N problem occurs more in the variable-oriented approach (analysed in Chapter 4) than in the case-oriented approach.…