SOC 522 – Comparative-Historical Methods
Instructor: Nurullah Ardıç
Office: West Campus 1032
Phone: 216-4444034/9056
E-mail: nardic@sehir.edu.tr
Office Hours: Tuesdays 5-7pm, or by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course consists of two main parts: comparative and historical sociology as a
theoretical and empirical endeavor, and as a scientific method. The course starts
with an introduction to historical sociology as a field of analysis by discussing its logic
and methodological assumptions. In the first part, the basic concepts and main
issues of the comparative-historical method are discussed. We proceed to the
second part with a close reading and discussion of the major substantive paradigms
that have shaped the domain of comparative and historical analysis. This part is
based on a discussion of the field's major representative works, such as those of Max
Weber, Charles Tilly, Michael Mann, Theda Skocpol, Barrington Moore, Şerif Mardin,
and Haim Gerber.
ASSESSMENT
1. Discussion (20%): Since this is a seminar (as opposed to a lecture course), every
student is expected to be actively involved in weekly discussions. This is very
important for a graduate-level class. Students will also be responsible for leading
at least four weekly discussions –depending on the number of students enrolled.
2. Reaction papers (20%): It is also important that each student write before the
class a one-page reaction or response paper critically discussing the (required)
readings assigned for every week. Students are required to complete at least 10
response papers, each due at class meeting every week.
3. Book review (10%): Students are required to critically review an exemplary work
in historical sociology. The work to be reviewed could be chosen from among the
readings given in the syllabus, or they may review another work of their own
choice, provided that it’s cleared with the instructor first. Book reviews include
both a summary of a book’s argument and a discussion of the book’s strengths
and weaknesses –theoretical, methodological and empirical. See reviews in the
American Journal of Sociology or the Journal of Historical Sociology for useful
examples. Reviews will be two-three pages long, and will be presented to the
class on the day they are submitted, which will be during weeks 6-11.
4. Literature Review/ Research Project (20%): Students will choose between writing
a preliminary literature review of their final research paper, or preparing a rough
(but relatively well-organized) research proposal to be further developed later as
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the final paper proposal. The topic of the paper/project could/should be
discussed with the instructor in advance. It is due at class meeting during week 6.
5. Final Paper/Research Proposal (30%): Students are required to both write and
present either a systematically composed, analytical and completed paper or a
fully-developed research proposal (depending on their choice of previous
requirement). It is due in class during the last week of the class; and each student
will make a short (15 min. max.) presentation of their final papers/proposals. The
final paper is expected to include a systematic presentation of a topic/subject,
relevant literature review, clear conceptual/theoretical discussion, the
methodology to be employed, a sound analysis and conclusions. A good research
proposal should include a clear and comprehensive research plan, clear discussion
of the data (and perhaps a preliminary examination of the data) as well as a
review of the relevant literature and the methodology to be employed. This could
also be thought of as a preparation for a potential MA thesis.
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week 1
Introduction and Course Organization
Skocpol, Theda. 1979. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of
France, Russia, and China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 33-40.
Calhoun, Craig. 2003. “Why Historical Sociology?” in Gerard Delanty and Engin Isin
eds., Handbook of Historical Sociology. London: Sage; pp. 383-395.
Recommended Reading:
Yazır, Elmalılı Hamdi. 1971. [“Esatir’ul-Evvelin – or What is History?”] Hak Dini Kur’an
Dili, vol. 3, pp. 1903-1907.
Week 2
History, Sociology, & Theory
Griffin, Larry J. 1995. “How is Sociology Informed by History?” Social Forces 73:12451254.
Mahoney, James. 2004. “Revisiting General Theory in Historical Sociology,” Social
Forces (December 2004).
Goldstone, Jack A. 1998. “Initial Conditions, General Laws, Path Dependence, and
Explanation in Historical Sociology.” American Journal of Sociology 104:829845.
Recommended Readings (from the 1998 AJS symposium on historical sociology):
Kiser, Edgar, and Michael Hechter. 1991. “The Role of General Theory in
Comparative-Historical Sociology,” American Journal of Sociology 97: 1, pp. 130.
Kiser, Edgar and Michael Hechter. 1998. “The Debate on Historical Sociology:
Rational Choice Theory and Its Critics.” American Journal of Sociology 104:72284.
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Calhoun, Craig. 1998. “Explanation in Historical Sociology: Narrative, General Theory,
and Historically Specific Theory.” American Journal of Sociology 104: 846-871.
Week 3
Historical and Comparative Analysis: Agenda and Basic Concepts
Mahoney, James and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, eds. 2003. Comparative Historical
Analysis in the Social Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press. Ch. 1, pp.
3-40.
Mahoney, James. 2004. “Comparative-Historical Methodology,” Annual Review of
Sociology, vol. 30, pp. 81-101.
Mahoney, James and Gary Goertz. 2006. “A Tale of Two Cultures: Contrasting
Quantitative and Qualitative Research,” Political Analysis 14:3 (Summer 2006):
227-249.
Recommended Readings
Mahoney, James. 2006. “On the Second Wave of Historical Sociology, 1970s-Present,”
International Journal of Comparative Sociology 47:5, pp. 371-377.
Skocpol, Theda (ed.) 1985. Vision and Method in Historical Sociology. Harvard
University Press.
Week 4
Methodological Issues: Causality and Case Study
Hedström, Peter and Petri Ylikoski. 2010. “Causal Mechanisms in the Social Sciences,”
Annual Review of Sociology, 36:49–67.
Gangl, Markus. 2010. “Causal Inference in Sociological Research” Annual Review of
Sociology, 36:21-47.
Pierson, Paul. 2003. “Big, Slow-Moving, and . . . Invisible: Macrosocial Processes in
the Study of Comparative Politics,” in James Mahoney and Dietrich
Rueschemeyer, eds., Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Recommended Readings
Mahoney, James. 2003. “Strategies of Causal Assessment in Comparative Historical
Analysis” in James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, eds., Comparative
Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Mahoney, James, Erin Kimball, and Kendra Koivu. 2009. “The Logic of Historical
Explanation in the Social Sciences,” Comparative Political Studies 42:1 (January
2009), pp. 114-146.
Week 5
Methodological Issues: The Small-N Problem
Lieberson, Stanley. 1991. “Small N’s and Big Conclusions: An Examination of the
Reasoning in Comparative Studies Based on a Small Number of Cases” Social
Forces 70: 307-320.
Rueschemeyer, Dietrich. 2003. “Can One or a Few Cases Yield Theoretical Gains?” pp.
305-336 in James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, eds. Comparative
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Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Recommended Readings
Ragin, Charles C. and Howard S. Becker, eds. 1992. What is a Case? Exploring the
Foundations of Social Inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ragin, Charles C. 1997. “Turning the Tables: How Case-Oriented Research Challenges
Variable-Oriented Research” Comparative and Social Research 16:27-42.
Week 6
Social Inequality in Historical Perspective
Mann, Michael. 1986. The Sources of Social Power, Cambridge University Press. Vol I:
Ch. 1.
Mann, Michael. 1993. The Sources of Social Power, Cambridge University Press. Vol
II: Ch. 2.
Recommended Readings
Boix, Carles. 2010. “Origins and Persistence of Economic Inequality” Annu. Rev. Polit.
Sci. 13:489–516.
Joyce, Patrick. 1995. Class. Oxford University Press, Pt 3: “Class and the Historians”
pp. 127-67, 174-82.
Thompson, E. P. 1968. The Making of the English Working Class. 2nd ed.
Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Week 7
Modern Economic Development: European Miracle or Eurocentrism?
Pomerantz, Kenneth 2000. The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of
the Modern World Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 3-68.
Goldstone, Jack 2002. “Efflorescence and Economic Growth in World History:
Rethinking the ‘Rise of the West’ and the Industrial Revolution” Journal of
World History, vol. 13: 323-389.
Recommended Readings
Gunder Frank, Andre 1998. Re-Orient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley &
Los Angeles: University of California Press. Chs. 1 & 7.
Mann, Michael 2005. “The Sources of Social Power Revisited: a Response to
Criticism”, in John Hall & Ralph Schroeder (eds.), The Anatomy of Power.
Cambridge University Press.
Week 8
The Rise of the Modern State
Mann, Michael. 1986. The Sources of Social Power, Cambridge University Press, vol.
II: Ch. 3.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1994. “Rethinking the State: On the Genesis and Structure of the
Bureaucratic Field” Sociological Theory 12-1 (March 1994): 1-19.
Recommended Readings
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Ertman, Thomas. 1997. Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in
Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Poggi, Gianfranco. 1978. The Development of the Modern State: A Sociological
Introduction, Stanford University Press. Ch. 1.
Week 9
Case Studies: Religion and Capitalism
Weber, Max. 2002. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Penguin Books.
[in W.G. Runciman (ed.) Weber: Selections in Translation. Cambridge University
Press, pp. 138-205]
Gorski, Philip S. 1993. “The Protestant Ethic revisited: disciplinary revolution and
state formation in Holland and Prussia” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 99.
Recommended Reading
Collins, Randall. 2008. “Weber's Last Theory of Capitalism” in Readings in Economic
Sociology (ed. N. W. Biggart), Blackwell.
Week 10
Case Studies: European State System
Tilly, Charles 1992. Coercion, Capital and European States, AD 990-1990. Blackwell,
chs. 1, 3, 6.
Recommended Reading
Tilly, Charles. 1978. From Mobilization to Revolution. McGraw-Hill, chs. 3, 4, 5.
Week 11
Case Studies: Revolutions
Skocpol, Theda. 1979. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of
France, Russia, and China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chs. 2 & 3.
Recommended Readings
Sewell, William. 1985. “Ideologies and social revolutions: reflections on the French
case” Journal of Modern History, vol. 57, no. 1: 56-85.
Skocpol Theda. 1985. “Cultural idioms and political ideologies in the revolutionary
reconstructing of state power: a rejoinder to Sewell” Journal of Modern History,
vol. 57, no. 1: 86-96.
Goldstone, Jack. 2003. “Comparative-historical analysis and knowledge accumulation
in the study of revolutions”, in James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer,
eds., Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Week 12
Case Studies: Dictatorship and Democracy
Moore, Barrington Jr. 1966. The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy.
Boston: Beacon Press. Chs. 1, 3, 5.
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Recommended Reading
Skocpol, Theda. 1973. “A critical review of Barrington Moore's Social Origins of
Dictatorship and Democracy” Politics and Society, Vol 12.
Week 13
Case Studies: Religion and Social Change
Mardin, Şerif. 1989. Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey: The Case of
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Albany: State University of New York.
Recommended Reading
Ardic, Nurullah. 2012. Islam and the Politics of Secularism: The Caliphate and Middle
Eastern Modernization in the Early 20th Century, London & New York:
Routledge. Chs. 4-5-6 (to be posted on the class website).
Week 14
Case Studies: Civil Society and the Public Sphere
Gerber, Haim. “The Civil Society and the Public Sphere in the Ottoman Empire” in
Idem, State and Society in the Ottoman Empire, Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
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