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RIFLESSIONI SULLA METODOLOGIA DEGLI STUDI COMPARATI

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2018

Abstract

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Sono passati vent'anni da quando pubblicai Comparative Methods in the Social Sciences (Smelser 1976). Il libro riscosse un certo interesse da parte della sociologia e della scienza politica. Tuttavia, dovrei mettere in chiaro che la sua pubblicazione fu in qualche modo singolare. Nella mia carriera non mi sono mai considerato un metodologo, malgrado in alcuni periodi abbia insegnato metodologia. E benché ritenga che il messaggio di quel volume sia congruente con gran parte della mia ricerca sostantiva, avevo scritto ben poco sui metodi di comparazione prima dell'uscita del libro, e niente ho scritto sul tema in seguito. L'invito a tenere una lezione presso l'Istituto Universitario Europeo mi ha offerto una gradita opportunità di passare in rassegna alcuni sviluppi occorsi dopo la seconda metà degli anni Settanta e di elaborare nuove riflessioni su alcune tematiche metodologiche nelle scienze sociali comparatistiche. Queste mie riflessioni si svilupperanno in quattro parti: a) alcune informazioni sui precedenti della stesura del libro e un'analisi retrospettiva dei suoi contenuti e dei suoi scopi intellettuali; b) una rassegna dei contributi alla letteratura sulla metodologia comparatista che sono apparsi in seguito; c) un tentativo di mettere ordine in questa letteratura confusa; d) una breve riconsiderazione finale di un paio di problemi centrali che verranno allo scoperto in questa presentazione.

Summary

Summary

This article revisits the methodological status of comparative social studies as it was originally presented in the author's Comparative Methods in the Social Sciences (1976), in the light of the criticism and proposals of the last two decades. In the first part, background, contents and aims of the book are recapitulated. The search for a middle ground between the opposite viewpoints of extreme positivism and relativism is emphasized as characterizing the author's approach. Alternative and subsequent approaches to comparative sociology and politics include those offered by Skocpol, Ragin, Wallerstein, Tilly, and most recently King, Keohane and Verba. An overview of this literature shows that the issue of the logics of inference stands out as the hard core of the debate. The point is whether there is and should be a unity or diversity of methods in comparative studies. Although firmly supporting the idea that there is a unique logic of inference underlying social science methods, the author acknowledges that world-system theories call for new strategies of comparative research in which interdependence among nation-states and relation phenomena are reckoned with.

Type
Saggi
Copyright
Copyright © Societ Italiana di Scienza Politica 

References

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