Comparative Social Inequality
Comparative method
Hypotheses
• Hypothesis is a statement, stipulated within a given
• theory, about the relationship between variables
(constructs) defined on some objects (units of
observation) within causal framework (time and
sequencing). In comparative sociology hypotheses deal
with space and/or time.
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• Cross-national studies involve, explicitly or implicitly,
nations (states, countries, societies) as units of
observation and at least one variable is defined on the
national (country, society) level. In historical studies the
same units of observations are compared through time.
Coparative studies
• Comparative methods refer specifically to the
methodology of comparing “something” through
space and/or time. Generally, comparative methods
for cross-national research and historical research do
not differ very much.
• Clarification:
• Most sociology is within-country, present-time
sociology. Comparative methods are specific (and
distinguishable) from “other methods” that they refer
to cross-national and/or historical studies.
Traditions
• Marx, Weber, Durkheim.
• Karl Marx (1818-1883) and his work (Capital, 1883) on
evolutionary processes of economic systems (cross-national and
historical)
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• Max Weber (1864-1920) and his work on The Protestant Ethics
and Spirit of Capitalism, 1905, (historical and cross-national)
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• Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) and his Suicide, 1897, as an example
of quantitative studies on nations' characteristics.
• In his Rules of Sociological Methods, 1985, Durkheim insists that
comparative sociology is not a particular branch of sociology; it is
sociology itself.
Paradigmatic approach
• The concept of a paradigm.
• Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolution
(1962)
• “A paradigm is a fundamental image of the subject
matter within a science. It serves to define what
should be studied, what questions should be asked,
how they should be asked, and what rules should be
followed in interpreting the answers obtained.”
(Ritzer, Sociology: A Multiple Paradigm Science, 1980:
7)
Paradigmatic approach
• The intellectual and social structure of comparative sociology. Is
there a specific substance and a specific method of comparative
sociology?
• A pragmatic view: Comparative sociology is what comparative
sociologists do. Their activity can be defined by:
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(1) Scientific research/training –
Research/Training Programs
(2) Scientific production – articles in Journals
(3) Scientific personal communication – activity in Associations
Research/Training Programs
• European institutions with focus on comparative studies
in sociology:
• Central European University (Budapest)
• European University Institute (Florence)
• - and all leading universities but Oxford and Essex in
particular
• US institutions - departments of sociology -with
comparative specialization at the PhD-level:
• Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Penn State, Princeton,
UCLA, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Johns
Hopkins, Maryland, The Ohio State University.
Journals
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In addition to ASR, AJS, SF, and Sociology, the
following journals are devoted to cross-national
and/or historical comparative research:
Comparative Sociology
Cross-Cultural Research: The Journal of Comparative
Social Science
Comparative Studies in Society and History
International Sociology
International Journal of Sociology
International Journal of Public Opinion Research
Associations
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International Sociological Asociation –
Research Committee on Comparative
Sociology, and two other sections:
Reseach Committee on Social Stratification
Research Committee on Methodology
In addition:
International Institute of Sociology
Society for Cross-Cultural Research
Nations, States, Countries, Societies
• To understand comparative sociology, we start with
cross-national research. In particular, we ask: What
are the units of observation in this kind of research?
Nations? States? Countries? Societies?
• Nation :
• common ethnic origin
• common language
• common culture
• common religion
• common self-identification
Nations, States, Countries, Societies
• The word state has both an empirical (de facto) and a juridical (de jure)
sense.
• De facto, an entity is a state if there is an organization on a specific
territory that has a monopoly on legitimate violence over this territory,
defending the social order externally and internally.
• De jure, an entity is a state, if it is recognized as such by other states
through their representation.
• State:
• territory with internationally recognize boundaries;
• sovereignty: no other state has power over the country's territory;
• a government which (a) provides police and army power, (b) regulates
foreign and domestic trade, and (c) issues money;
• external recognition: a country has been "voted into the club” by other
countries.
Nations, States, Countries, Societies
• Country. Commonly, the term is used casually in the
sense of both nation (a cultural entity?) and state (a
political entity?)
• In terms of political geography the world is diviaded
into independent states and “other teritiories”:
dependencies and areas of special sovereignty.
• Presently, there are 192 countries as independent
states, members of the UN, and 65 countries that are
called dependencies and areas of special sovereignty.
• In practice, cross-national research means crosscountry research, restricted to subset of independent
states.
Nations, States, Countries, Societies
• Society. Robert E. Marsh, Comparative Sociology, defines society as a
plurality of interacting individuals that has the following four
characteristics:
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- definite territory
- sexual reproduction
- comprehensive culture
- political independence
• What is the universe of societies through space and time?
About 5,000 units, from ca. 100 people of primitive hunting bands to
over 1.3 billion people of contemporary China.
• George Murdock, World Ethnographic Sample (1957): 522 independent
societies.