Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences

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.

• Methodologically innovative • Integrates history and theory • Review of past work; essential bibliographic resource

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.