Читать книгу Essentials of Sociology - George Ritzer - Страница 82

The goal of historical-comparative research is to contrast how different historical events and conditions in various societies have led to different societal outcomes. The historical component involves the study of the history of societies as well as of their major components, such as the state, religious system, and economy. The addition of the comparative element, comparing the histories of two or more societies, or of components of societies, makes this method more distinctively sociological.

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Figure 2.5 World Happiness Ranking of 158 Countries

Source: John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey Sachs, eds. 2018. World Happiness Report 2018. New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Historians go into much more detail, and collect far more original historical data, than do sociologists. In contrast, sociologists are much more interested in generalizing about society than are historians. Weber did historical comparative research in analyzing the relationship between world religions and the development of capitalism. More recent instances of historical-comparative research have covered a wide range of issues, but one of the most popular topics has been examining the relationship between the state and war (Skocpol 1979; Rodriguez-Franco 2016).

Some scholars have combined the use of other methods with historical-comparative analysis to generate important theoretical insights about more contemporary issues. For example, Piketty (2014) examined a variety of statistical data to uncover the historical changes of income and wealth inequality in Europe and the United States. He found that inequality has been produced and reproduced over time due to the concentration of wealth in the upper class. The concentration of wealth was quite high in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and in the United States in the decades before the Great Depression but leveled off during and after World War II due to inflation, higher taxes, and the policies of the modern welfare state. However, near the end of the twentieth century the concentration of wealth (and income) started to increase dramatically when inherited wealth, in particular, began to grow faster than economic output and income (Piketty 2014). If we aspire to a more egalitarian society, Piketty suggests that states implement a global tax on wealth.