Comparative sociology involves comparison of the social processes between
nation states, or across different types of society (for example
capitalist and
socialist). There are two main approaches to comparative sociology: some seek similarity across different countries and cultures whereas others seek variance. For example,
structural Marxists
Structural Marxism is an approach to Marxist philosophy based on structuralism, primarily associated with the work of the French philosopher Louis Althusser and his students. It was influential in France during the 1960s and 1970s, and also came ...
have attempted to use comparative methods to discover the general processes that underlie apparently different social orderings in different societies. The danger of this approach is that the different social contexts are overlooked in the search for supposed universal structures.
One sociologist who employed comparative methods to understand variance was
Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...
, whose studies attempted to show how differences between cultures explained the different social orderings that had emerged (see for example ''
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism'' and
Sociology of religion).
There is some debate within sociology regarding whether the label of 'comparative' is suitable.
Emile Durkheim argued in ''
The Rules of Sociological Method'' (1895) that all sociological research was in fact comparative since social phenomenon are always held to be typical, representative or unique, all of which imply some sort of comparison. In this sense, all sociological analysis is comparative and it has been suggested that what is normally referred to as comparative research, may be more appropriately called
cross-national research.
See also
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Reinhard Bendix
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Comparative historical research
Comparative historical research is a method of social science that examines historical events in order to create explanations that are valid beyond a particular time and place, either by direct comparison to other historical events, theory buildin ...
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Historical institutionalism Historical institutionalism (HI) is a new institutionalist social science approach that emphasizes how timing, sequences and path dependence affect institutions, and shape social, political, economic behavior and change. Unlike functionalist the ...
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Historical sociology
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Structuration theory
The theory of structuration is a social theory of the creation and reproduction of social systems that is based on the analysis of both ''structure'' and '' agents'' (see structure and agency), without giving primacy to either. Furthermore, in stru ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Comparative Sociology
Sociological theories
Comparisons