Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.7906/indecs.24.4.1

From Analytical Comparison to Configurational Causality: Comparative-Historical Methods for Studying Complex Social Systems

Mehmet Albayrak ; Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University, Institute of Graduate Studies, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan *

* Corresponding author.

Abstract

This article develops a complexity-oriented methodological synthesis of comparative-historical analysis for political science and sociology. Rather than treating comparison as a merely descriptive strategy, it examines how comparative reasoning can be used to identify configurational causality, temporal sequencing, and equivalence across historical and cross-cultural cases. The article first clarifies the scope and limits of comparative-historical inquiry and then discusses three methodological families: Mill’s methods of agreement, difference, and concomitant variation; Ragin’s Boolean/configurational logic; and event-sequence/event-structure analysis. By bringing these approaches into a single analytical framework, the article shows how comparative research can move from linear causal attribution toward the analysis of complex social systems in which outcomes emerge from combinations of conditions, path-dependent sequences, and context-specific mechanisms. The article contributes to methodological debates by providing a concise framework for teaching and applying comparative-historical analysis without reducing it to a textbook summary of existing literature.

Keywords

comparative-historical analysis; complex social systems; configurational causality; Boolean analysis; event-sequence analysis

Hrčak ID:

347872

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/347872

Publication date:

31.8.2026.

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