ABSTRACT
After Comte, Herbert Spencer was undoubtedly the scholar chiefly responsible for the foundation of sociology during the nineteenth century.1 His theoretical master-key was the concept of evolution.2 He was the first sociologist who formulated a comprehensive theory of society based on concrete empirical data. As such he left Comte far behind and set an example which, consciously or otherwise, every sociologist has followed ever since. An organism in Spencer’s view is the more perfect according as it is more complex and its parts are differentiated. This involves greatfer division of functions between the different organs, which means that the parts would have to be more closely integrated. Social evolution and progress consists essentially in an increase of social differentiation and integration, in an increase of the division of labour, and in a transition from the state of undifferentiated homogeneity to a state of heterogeneity.3 After de Tocqueville Spencer was an outstanding sociologist who recognized clearly the importance of the comparative method in analysing social facts.
