ABSTRACT
The works we shall consider in this book belong within the research field referred to as ‘comparative historical analysis’ (Mahoney and Rueschemeyer 2003; Lange 2012). Such analysis is by definition both comparative and diachronic. This is a common feature of all of the analyses in the genre. It is hardly surprising that attempts to answer big questions about state formation, regime change, and economic development are normally based on large-scale historical comparisons. As we shall see in this chapter, however, different authors have very different approaches to such comparisons. Moreover, in what follows I argue that the research field is broader than it is often given credit for.
