ABSTRACT

This chapter outlines important conceptual and methodological issues in comparative cross-national research. Scholars from different disciplines have a tendency to discuss comparative research methods as a field by itself and to appeal to researchers for methodological innovation. Comparative studies of modernization processes in culturally, politically, and economically diverse societies present perplexing conceptual questions. The chapter highlights the issues without analyzing specific studies in depth and demonstrates that it is difficult to accept convergence theses on the basis of comparative cross-national studies on modernization. It discusses prevailing notions of modernization on the basis of two major cross-national studies almost sixteen years apart, which form a small part of the vast body of literature on modernization. The chapter provides some methodological issues that are relevant to comparative studies involving developing societies. In comparative research, the analysis of observed relationships should be carried out at different levels to fully understand the dynamics producing intersocietal similarities and differences.