Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

Cambridge University Press, 6/19/2003
EAN 9780521016452, ISBN10: 0521016452

Paperback, 468 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 3 cm
Language: English

This book systematically investigates the past accomplishments and future agendas of contemporary comparative-historical analysis. Its core essays explore three major issues: the accumulation of knowledge in the field over the past three decades, the analytic tools used to study temporal process and historical patterns, and the methodologies available for making inferences and for building theories. The introductory and concluding essays situate the field as a whole by comparing it to alternative approaches within the social sciences. Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences will serve as an invaluable resource for scholars in the field, and it will represent a challenge to many other social scientists - especially those who have raised skeptical concerns about comparative-historical analysis in the past.

1. Comparative-historical analysis
achievements and agendas James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer
Part I. Accumulation of Research
2. Comparative-historical analysis and knowledge accumulation in the study of revolutions Jack A. Goldstone
3. What we know about the development of social policy
comparative and historical research in comparative and historical perspective Edwin Amenta
4. Knowledge accumulation in comparative-historical research
the case of democracy and authoritarianism James Mahoney
Part II. Analytic Tools
5. Big, slow-moving, and … invisible
macro-social processes in the study of comparative politics Paul Pierson
6. How institutions evolve
insights from comparative-historical analysis Kathleen Thelen
7. Uses of network tools in comparative-historical research Roger V. Gould
8. Periodization and preferences
reflections on purposive action in comparative-historical social science Ira Katznelson
Part III
Issues of Method
9. Can one or a few cases yield gains? Dietrich Rueschemeyer
10. Strategies of causal assessment in comparative-historical analysis James Mahoney
11. Aligning ontology and methodology in comparative politics
12. Doubly engaged social science
the promise of comparative-historical analysis Theda Skocpol.