Potentials and Limitations of Comparative Method in Social Science

Abstract

Comparison is a common research method with outstanding merits and with widespread application. The aim of this article is to discuss systematically some of the methodological strategies of using this mode of research in social science. To do so a few typologies regarding the functions and leverages of comparative analysis are presented first. In the next step various ways in which comparative research is applied in social theory are exemplified, with especial attention paid to comparative studies of large-scale, macro-level historical process of social change. This article ends with a discussion of the limitations of comparison as a method of generating historical generalisations.

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