The Essentials of Comparative Studies

1. 北京师范大学教育研究方法讲座系列Lecture 3The Design and Logics of Comparative-Historical Method in the Social Sciences

2. The Essentials of Comparative Studies • “We have only one means of demonstrating that one phenomenon is the cause of another: it is to compare case to cases where they are simultaneously present or absent. When the phenomenon can be artificially produced by the observer, the method is experimentation in its proper sense. When, on the contrary, the product of fact is out of reach, when we can thus only bring them together as they are spontaneously produced, the method we use is that of indirect experimentation, or comparative method.” (Durkhiem; Quoted in Dogan and Pelassy, 1990, P. 15-16)

4. The Essentials of Comparative Studies • “Comparison is a universal method in the social sciences; it is worthwhile not only to those who study in international field. ….It is not surprise that the historical method is so often combined with comparative method.” (Dogan and Pelassy, 1990, P. 16) • “Comparative sociology is not a special branch of sociology, it is sociology itself, in so far as it cease to be purely descriptive and aspires to account for fact.” (Durkhiem, P. 157; Quoted in Schriewer, 2003, P. 5)

5. The Basic Principles of Research Design of Comparative Research • Morris Zelditch (1971) specifies that the design of comparative research is conditioned largely by four rules: • Comparability : Two or more instances of a phenomenon may be compared if and only if there exists some variable, say V, common to each instance. • J.S. Mill's 1st Canon (Method of Agreement) : No second variable, say U, is the cause or effect of V, if it is not found when V is found. • J.S. Mill's 2nd Canon (Method of Difference): No second variables U is the cause or effect of V if it is found when V is not.

6. The Basic Principles of Research Design of Comparative Research • Morris Zelditch (1971) specifies that the design of comparative research is conditioned largely by four rules: • Rule of One Variable : No second variable U is definitely the cause or effect of V if there exists a third variable, w, that is present or absent in the same circumstances as U. In order to verify that U and V are correlated in the design where there are other 2 variables, say W and X, we need at least eight cases (2x2x2) of the following nature

7. The Basic Principles of Research Design of Comparative Research CaseCausesEffectResults V W X U (Method of Agreement) 1 1 1 1 1 VWX U 2 1 1 0 1 VWX U 3 1 0 1 1 VWX U 4 1 0 0 1 VWX U (Method of Difference) 5 0 0 0 0 VWX U 6 0 0 1 0 VWX U 7 0 1 0 0 VWXU 8 0 1 1 0 VWX U

8. Charles Ragin’s Boolean Approach to Comparative Analysis

9. Charles Ragin’s Boolean Approach to Comparative Analysis • The operation of the Boolean Algebra consist of the following features • Binary data and truth table

12. Charles Ragin’s Boolean Approach to Comparative Analysis • The operation of the Boolean Algebra consist of the following features • Binary data and truth table • Boolean addition and multiplication

15. Charles Ragin’s Boolean Approach to Comparative Analysis • The operation of the Boolean Algebra consist of the following features • Binary data and truth table • Boolean addition and multiplication • Boolean minimization

19. Charles Ragin’s Boolean Approach to Comparative Analysis • The operation of the Boolean Algebra consist of the following features • Binary data and truth table • Boolean addition and multiplication • Boolean minimization • De Morgan’s Law

21. S=AC+AB+Bc

25. Charles Ragin’s Boolean Approach to Comparative Analysis • The operation of the Boolean Algebra consist of the following features • Binary data and truth table • Boolean addition and multiplication • Boolean minimization • De Morgan’s Law • Identifying prime implicants • Identifying necessary and sufficient causes • Limitations of the Boolean Approach

26. Objectives of Comparative-Historical Research in Education & the Social Sciences • To reveal the contextual and relative nature of social phenomena: "There is no such a thing as comparative chemistry or contextual physics. In the natural sciences, the chain of causality is everywhere identical. In experimental physics or chemistry discoveries have a universal validity. On the contrary, the social sciences, because of the diversity and idiosyncrasy of human societies, are contextual and relativistic …The best way to comprehend such a biological and social diversity is the comparative method." (Dogan, 2006, p. 309) Accordingly, we have comparative education, comparative economics, comparative politics and comparative sociology.

27. Objectives of Comparative-Historical Research in Education & the Social Sciences • To elevate from ethnocentrism: In order to disenchanted themselves from the processes of socialization and acculturation of a particular socio-historical context, into which all human beings are born; social scientists are obliged to transcend themselves from the social milieu that they have got so used to and have taken for granted. Therefore, "comparison …helps to rid us of inherited fossilized notions, obliged us to reconsider the validity of undiscussed interpretations, and enlarge our visual field." (Dogan and Pelassy, 1984, p. 9) "Comparative studies point out and denounced ethnocentrism, and in this way they certainly contribute to its lessening." (p. 13)

28. Objectives of Comparative-Historical Research in Education & the Social Sciences • To construct complex causal explanatory models for big structures and large processes: Big structures and large processes found in social phenomena are so complex that they can never be explained by simple linear cause-effect models. None can these causal explanations bear the features of universality and exhaustiveness as those in natural sciences do. Instead, they are embedded in a network of causations involving the interactive and/or circular dynamics between endogenous and exogenous factors and among economic, political, social and cultural factors; and the cooperations and/or competitions among various interesting parties.

29. Strategies in Comparative-Historical Research • We may tentatively codify the strategy in comparative-historical method into three interrelated dialogues • Dialogue between theory and evidence • Dialogue between historical studies of particular case and comparative studies of multiple cases • Dialogue between functional equivalence and institutional configuration

30. Strategies in Comparative-Historical Research • Dialogue between theory and evidence • As Weber indicates (1949), researchers of historical and social phenomena are confronted with infinite reality, as result researchers have to equip their finite minds with ideal-typical concepts and theories and strive to "mediate" the multiplicity of evidences generated from the infinite reality with their ideal-typical concepts and theoretical constructs. Therefore, one of the procedures of comparative-historical method is to engage in repeated and intensive dialogue between theory and evidences.

31. Strategies in Comparative-Historical Research • Dialogue between theory and evidence: …. • Mattei Dogan and Dominique Pelassy (1990) have further specified these mediating conceptual devices into • Operational concepts: “The concept is an abstract idea in that it considers only certain characteristics of the objects; and it is a general idea, in that it extends the considered characteristic to all objects of the same class.” (Dogan and Pelassy, 1990, P. 24; original emphases) Hence, Dogan and Pelassy underlines that “there is an unending dialectic between a priori and a posteriori”, (ibid) i.e. between abstract and concrete or between concept and fact. As this unending dialectic is “applied to comparative analysis, the point could be briefly stated as following: Without abstraction and intellectual construction, there are no common denominators between the several objects submitted to comparison. Because the concept is this very abstraction. There can be no comparisons without concepts.” (ibid)

32. Strategies in Comparative-Historical Research • Dialogue between theory and evidence: …. • Mattei Dogan and Dominique Pelassy (1990) have further specified these mediating conceptual devices into … • Theoretical framework: “Concepts are indispensable but not sufficient for the comparativists, who must not only analyze and dissect reality but also coherently structure data. It is the creation of logical frameworks that the comparativist can make knowledge cumulative.” (Dogan and Pelassy, 1990, P. 32) Dogan and Pelassy further suggest that “For the comparativist, undoubtedly, functionalism is the most useful of all theoretical frameworks. By liberating comparative analysis from its formal shackles, it permits progress that remains above criticism.” (P. 35) • Functional equivalences: ….(To be expounded in details in subsequent lectures

33. Strategies in Comparative-Historical Research • Dialogue between theory and evidence: …. • As Mahoney and Rueschemeyer specify "most comparative historical work aims for explanations of important outcomes within delimited historical contexts, usually focusing on a small number of cases. While this approach does not directly aim for universally applicable knowledge, it represents a bargain in which significant advantages are gained. Above all, the approach makes possible a dialogue between theory and evidence of an intensity that is rare in quantities social research. By employing a small number of cases, comparative-historical researchers can move comfortably back and forth between theory and history in many iterations of analysis as they formulate new concepts, discover novel explanations, and refine preexisting theoretical expectations in light of detailed case evidence." (2003, P.13)

34. Strategies in Comparative-Historical Research • Dialogue between historical studies of particular case and comparative studies of multiple cases • Jurgen Schriewer specifies that comparative-historical research “aims at the ‘reconciliation of history and comparison’. …This reconciliation is not merely the merging of cross-cultural comparison and historical process analysis into comparative-historical research. It also implies an approach which transmutes comparison’s explanatory claims into the conceptually informed reconstruction of the developmental path taken by distinct sociocultural configuration.” (Schriewer, 2003, P. 33) More specifically, comparative-historical research strives to bridge two research emphases, namely, one the one hand, the emphasis of comparative research in the social sciences, which focuses on building generalized explanatory models across different countries on their paths of economic growth, political development, and modernization in general; and one the other hand, the emphasis of historical research, which strive to reveal rich and thick historical evidence to account for particular event and/or process.

35. Strategies in Comparative-Historical Research • Dialogue between historical studies of particular case and comparative studies of multiple cases • Dialogue between historical research and comparative research in the social sciences can therefore be conceived as the process of build on an accumulative spiral of knowledge on big structure and huge process. That is, by undertaking historical studies on particular cases and comparative studies across cases alternatively, we may gain particular insights into the developmental process of each case. These sights will in turn help us to conduct comparative studies across cases and generate knowledge of higher degree of universality. Again, these universal knowledge will inform researcher to explore new sights into the developmental path of particular case. …

36. Strategies in Comparative-Historical Research • Dialogue between functional equivalence and institutional configuration: …(To be explicated in subsequent lecture)

37. Comparative Studies of Multiple Cases Theory Historical Studies of Particular Case Evidence Functional Equivalence Structural Configuration

38. The Tasks at Hand: The Significance and Prospect of Comparative-Historical Research • Double traps and dilemma of comparative-historical research: Charles Tilly, one of the most prominent historical and comparative sociologists of the field (1929-2008), concludes his work Big Structures, Large processes, Huge Comparison under the heading of “the tasks at hand” by highlighting two traps confronting comparative-historical researchers. “Therein lie two traps: the trap of refinement and the trap of despair.

39. The Tasks at Hand: The Significance and Prospect of Comparative-Historical Research • …“Therein lie two traps: the trap of refinement and the trap of despair. • It is tempting to look for finer and finer comparisons, with larger numbers of cases and more variables controlled. In the present state of our knowledge of the big structures and large processes, that would be a serious error. It would be an error because with the multiplication of cases and the standardization of categories for comparison the theoretical return declines more rapidly than the empirical return rises. …In a distant future, we can aim to have theories of large-scale social processes sufficiently precise that a well-measured chunk of a single region’s experience will provide strong proof of a theory’s validity or invalidity.

40. The Tasks at Hand: The Significance and Prospect of Comparative-Historical Research • …“Therein lie two traps: the trap of refinement and the trap of despair. … • “The trap of despair opens up when we decide that such a day will never come ― can never come.” (Tilly, 1984, P. 144)

41. The Tasks at Hand: The Significance and Prospect of Comparative-Historical Research • The value and significance of comparative-historical research: Entangled within these two traps, Tilly raises the question: What is the use of such a research method. Simultaneously he answer the question as follow, • “The use is this: Historical grounded huge comparisons of big structures and large processes help establish what must be explained, attach the possible explanations to their context in time and space, and sometime actually improve our understanding of those structures and processes.” (Tilly, 1984, 145))

42. The Tasks at Hand: The Significance and Prospect of Comparative-Historical Research • The value and significance of comparative-historical research: … • The relative value of comparative-historical method; or more specifically, the four types of comparisons categorized by Tilly, namely individualizing, universalizing, encompassing and variation-finding comparisons; mainly “depends on the intellectual task at hand.” (Tilly, 1984, P. 145)

43. The Tasks at Hand: The Significance and Prospect of Comparative-Historical Research • The value and significance of comparative-historical research: … • The relative values…“depends on the intellectual task at hand.” (Tilly, 1984, P. 145) • Pragmatically, the significance of different types of comparisons depends on the nature of the issue that the researcher is to address. If the research question at hand is a particularistic issue on a specific socio-historical even or process at a definite point in time, method of individualizing comparison will be relevant to the task. On the other hand, if the research question at hand involves diverse and numerous units in various localities and across long period of time, the method qualifies for the task will either be the universalizing comparison or encompassing comparison. (Tilly, 1984, Pp. 145-46)

44. The Tasks at Hand: The Significance and Prospect of Comparative-Historical Research • The value and significance of comparative-historical research: … • The relative values…“depends on the intellectual task at hand.” (Tilly, 1984, P. 145) • Ontologically, the value of comparative-historical research also depends on the nature and features of the phenomenon confronting us. It all depends on whether we oriented to the world view that the world (with its fundamental units of sovereign states or coherent sociocultural communities) we are living is converging into a relatively similar “world system” or “global village” or on the contrary that the world is diverging further into isolated fragments of no connection. (Tilly, 1984, P. 146-47)

45. The Tasks at Hand: The Significance and Prospect of Comparative-Historical Research • The value and significance of comparative-historical research: … • The relative values…“depends on the intellectual task at hand.” (Tilly, 1984, P. 145) • Epistemologically, the significance of comparative-historical research finally rests on the research interest of the researchers themselves. If one is interest in revelation of idiosyncratic features and meanings of a specific social aggregate in a particular location and specific point in time, it will be advisable that one should migrate to other research paradigms such as interpretive-ethnographic studies or behavioristic-psycho-metric studies. On the other hand, if one ahs decided to elevate one’ understanding from marcohistorical to either world-system or world-history level, it will then be advisable that one must strive hard to master one’ craft within the big structures, large processes, and huge comparisons. (Tilly, 1984, P. 147)

46. The Tasks at Hand: The Significance and Prospect of Comparative-Historical Research • Heuristic device of enquiry: More recently Charles Tilly concludes the state of the art of comparative-historical research tools as “a fine heuristic but a logically and ontological flawed basis for serious explanation of social process. …The lining up of civilizations, societies, cultures, wars, revolutions, and other great chunks of social experience for arguments about causes and meanings will persist as the heuristic and literary trope it has been for hundred of years, but will shrivel as a method of systematic analysis." (Tilly, 2006, 225-226)

47. Lecture 3The Design and Logics of Comparative-Historical Method in the Social Sciences END

48. Basic Logics of Research Design for Causal Explanation • Three principles of research design of causal explanatory study • Definite association between two instances of a phenomenon (say U and V are highly correlated) • The permanent temporal order between the two instances (say U always precede V in all phenomena) • Ceteris paribus (all other things being equal or constant)

49. Basic Logics of Research Design for Causal Explanation • Three strategies of research design • Treatment • Control • Randomization