The liberal principle of freedom and responsibility built in our ordinary language operates as the basis of social order. However, how does the principle organize our society? In this paper, I examine (1) the nature of “the social order of civil society” based on the institution of liberalism, and (2) the meanings of the principle of freedom and responsibility in the context of expanding poverty and inequality, from the point of view of the maintenance of normative social order. Analyses using the model of “Liberal Paradox” and data from a 2005 Japanese national survey reveals following results: (1) the maintenance of the social order of civil society requires that people have the sufficient freedom to take self-responsibility, and (2) paradoxically, the refusal of redistribution of resources for the reason of self-responsibility can undermine the foundation of normative social order of liberalism, that is, the principle of freedom and responsibility itself.

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     The existing literature in the field of social sciences has mainly employed either large-n statistical analyses or case studies as methods for testing its arguments. Due to the limitations of both the methods, many previous studies have not analyzed conjunctural causations adequately. Nevertheless, considering that the institutional factors come under research focus increasingly and they have discrete natures, it is necessary for us to pay more serious attention to conjunctural effects. As a method for exploring conjunctural causations, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) has come to be employed by an increasing number of studies. QCA, however, has been criticized for reasons such as its inability to include control variables and the dichotomization of variables. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether such criticism is valid, or whether the results obtained from QCA are, in fact, unreliable. I have used two methods-QCA and regression analysis-to analyze an empirical research question about countries' frequency in the use of quasi-judicial institution in the GATT/WTO. A comparison of the results will reveal the validity of QCA results and clarify the limitations of the regression analysis method. Reexamining the effects of the variables that were underemphasized in the regression analysis conducted by the previous studies would be fruitful agenda for future studies.

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     The first purpose of this article is to introduce the method of fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) proposed by C. Ragin. This article especially focuses on the method of fuzzy-set truth-table approach and introduces it using a virtual data.
     The second purpose is to propose a way of application of fsQCA to reconstruction of an index constructed by several sub-indices. An example is the Human Development Index (HDI), which is a national level index of well-being published by UNDP every year. We try to reconstruct HDI by fsQCA in order to reflect people's subjective evaluation such as subjective well-being and evaluation of freedom of choice. First, we construct fuzzy-set truth tables with sub-indices of HDI as conditions and subjective evaluation indices as an outcome using the dataset from Human Development Report and the World Values Surveys. Then, we propose two ways of reconstruction of HDI for reflecting a subjective evaluation index. One way is to use membership score of a sufficient condition equation derived from the truth table by fsQCA. Another way is to create a complex index factoring in sufficiency and necessity (consistency and coverage) of each combination of conditions to the outcome. The performances of each reconstructed index are discussed at the end of the article.

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     This paper examines the results of economic poverty reduction modelling in selected countries 1992-2002 using the fuzzy set method (fsQCA) and the crisp set method (csQCA). The fsQCA and csQCA are the two main configurational comparative methods (CCM). This paper primarily focuses on making sensitivity assessments of the fsQCA and csQCA results. The outcomes of CCM based on the truth table algorithm are determined by the calibration of the set-relation membership score as well as the outcome variable of the interim truth table (called the consistency cutoff). Calibration of the raw data into crisp- and fuzzy-set membership scores based on theoretically and empirically grounded establishment of thresholds has been emphasised as it shapes the truth table algorithm. Thus, like previous studies of sensitivity assessment we focus on calibration. However this paper shows how to determine the balance of consistency and coverage outcomes based on various cutoff points as being highly important for a sensitivity assessment. We argue that the optimal consistency cutoff point helps us optimally determine the configurational multiple causality. The outcomes of fsQCA and csQCA are considered in relation to the balance of consistency and coverage. The robustness of the results of the truth table algorithm depends on the balance of consistency and coverage. Using poverty reduction as a dependent variate, we compare the two methods which are both useful.

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     Recent years have witnessed increasing interests in integrating temporality into Boolean analysis or Qualitative Comparative Analysis (hereafter QCA). Despite the rapid development of the Boolean method and the extensive application, QCA had been often criticized for its static nature and limitations in analyzing a dynamic process of temporal changes. This article joins the recent efforts in the literature and argues that temporal changes can be analyzed using the existing QCA methods. The article first reviews the existing work on temporal QCA (hereafter TQCA) in a broader context of analyzing temporality in the Boolean method. It then proposes different techniques to analyze dynamic processes of temporal changes through Boolean analysis by incorporating time-series variations into QCA (hereafter TS/QCA), which take sub-forms of Pooled QCA, Fixed Effects QCA, and Time Differencing QCA. Lastly, it maps various types of “QCA families“ in a typological framework and discusses the challenges that TQCA and TS/QCA face and suggest future directions of methodological innovations.

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     Through all ages and countries, much is talked about the influence of the third person. One of the famous example is the historical event in China called by Gyohu-no-ri(If the two persons should quarrel, the third would be the one to profit from it). The German sociologist George Simmel considered the unique characters of social relationships consisted of three persons through the typical three forms of interaction: the impartial person and mediator, fish in troubled waters and divide and govern. The previous mathematical approach on the triadic relationship is, though, restricted to the coalition formation on the assumption of enforced agreement between players. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to formulate the Simmel's classical work about three types into non-cooperative game models. The result of the analysis teaches us that (1) the equilibrium of the triadic conflict depends on the third person's capacity to arbitrate, appropriate and prohibit a quarrel between the two, (2) the more the capacity of the third toward the two persons increases, the less the third could govern the two, and (3) the triadic conflict models have a close affinity with the 'Hobbesian problem of order'.

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     I applied the interdependence model to senior high school student-mother dyadic data and investigated different covariates' effects on students' and mothers' expectations simultaneously, controlling for the contemporaneous association between their expectations. Concerning post secondary educational expectations, the application of the method showed that students' average grades and the types and levels of high school attended had an effect on students' expectations. On the other hand, parental education, family income and the level of high school had an effect on mothers' expectations. In regards to four-year colleges, students' average grades and the types and levels of high school had an effect on students' expectations, while sex of the child and the number of children as well as parental education, family income and the level of high school had an effect on mothers' expectations. These results showed that family socioeconomic background variables had an effect on only mothers' expectations, controlling for the contemporaneous association between students and mothers.

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     The purpose of this paper is to deduce axiomatically a bilateral evaluation function that has various meanings on caring about the other e.g. equalitarian, maximin, competition etc. The evaluation function of one's and the other's payoffs looks like a little complicated including absolute value, but the function can be deduced from very simple axioms. Concretely speaking, the axioms are (1) comparable payoffs between actors and (2) positive affine transformation constancy on payoffs and evaluations respectively. These two axioms look like not including equality, but the evaluation function from the axioms includes equality. Because increasing affine transformation keeps the order property of payoffs. By the way the equality is defined as -|x-y| where x is one's payoff and y is the other's payoff. Then the asymmetric property of absolute value of equality originates from the asymmetric property of the order of payoffs.

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     As it is well known, non-cooperative N-person dilemma game has a unique dominant strategy solution where all players choose defecting strategy. In this paper, we analyze an N-person dilemma game by taking the point of view of coalition and try to find the condition that all players choose cooperating strategy in a grand coalition. First, we show that if we transform N-person dilemma game into a coalitional form, then the core is non empty when a characteristic function is defined by the maximin value. We also show the condition that players do not choose cooperating strategy in a grand coalition. Next we specify the condition of existence of core by generalizing a characteristic function. We define a characteristic function by the subjective probability of choosing cooperative strategy. As a result we find that the core is empty when a characteristic function is defined by the maximax value. In general, if players in a coalition believe that other players, who are not members of the coalition, will choose cooperative strategy with a high probability, then the core will be empty by a deviation of a single coalition.

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     Recent concerns in Japan regarding the protection of personal information has caused difficulties in conducting social survey. In order to cope with the consistently changing society resulted from different cultures, it is necessary to design a more appropriate method when conducting social surveys in Japan. It is hoped that effective ways can be developed through studying social survey methods used in other countries.
     We therefore conducted some interviews in Australia to study the problems and solutions when conducting social surveys there. We then compare these problems and solutions with those in Japan. As a result, we found several references to consider survey methodology in Japan on five points: consideration of respondent rate and modes, secondary use of raw data, management of completed questionnaires, consideration of ethical issues in survey research, and collaboration survey between government agencies and universities.

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