Concepts and Generalizations in Comparative Sociological Studies Reinhard Bendix American Sociological Review, Vol. 28, No. 4. (Aug., 1963), pp. 532-539. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-1224%28196308%2928%3A4%3C532%3ACAGICS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T American Sociological Review is currently published by American Sociological Association. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/asa.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Thu Feb 28 08:30:58 2008 CONCEPTS AND GENERALIZATIOKS IN COhfPARATIVE SOCIOLOGICAL STUDIES * REINHARDBENDJX University of California, Berkeley Comparative sociological studies attempt to develop concepts and generalizations at a level between "pure theory" and descriptive area studies. They help to elucidate the time-and- space limitations of sociological concepts that have less than universal applicability and to uncover the generalizations hidden in many "composite concepts." Positively, they can help us develop typologies of social actions and structures and assess their characteristic range of variation. These contributions are exemplified on the basis of classic comparative studies and of the author's studies of the "political conznzunity." IKE the concepts of other disciplines, Other concepts can be related logically to sociological concepts should be uni- 'Lascription": emphasis on personal attri- L versally applicable. The concept "di- butes is incompatible with emphasis on uni- vision of labor," for instance, refers to the versal standards, a neutral or impersonal fact that the labor performed in a collec- attitude, and equalitarianism. Empirically, tivity is specialized; the concept is universal however, the meaning both of these terms because we know of no collectivity without and of their interrelations is in doubt. To such specialization. Where reference is made be analytically useful, universal concepts re- to a principle of the division of labor over quire specifications which will help us bridge time-irrespective of the particular indi- the gap between concept and empirical evi- viduals performing the labor and of the way dence. Emphasis on the ascriptive criterion labor is subdivided (whether by sex, age, of birth may refer equally well to a person skill or whatever)-we arrive at one mean- with an ancient aristocratic lineage as to a ing of the term "social organization." We person whose family acquired its title by pur- know of no society that lacks such a princi- chase. In one cultural setting emphasis on ple; furthermore, we can compare and con- beauty may outweigh emphasis on high trast the social organization of two societies birth; in another it may not. Such differ- by showing how their division of labor ences, rather than the predominance of as- differs. criptive criteria as such, provide the clues It is possible to remain at this level of for a sociological analysis of diverse social universal concepts. A whole series of mu- structures. tually related concepts can be elaborated These considerations point to a persistent deductively in an effort to construct a frame- problem in sociology. Concepts and theories work of concepts applicable to all societies. are difficult to relate to empirical findings Such efforts in "pure theory," however, on the one hand, while much empirical re- should be subjected to periodic checks of search is devoid of theoretical significance the analytic utility of the concepts. For on the other. Many sociologists deplore this example, the concept "ascription" apparently hiatus, but the difficulties persist and tend refers unambiguously to a principle of as- to reinforce the claims of "pure theory" and signment to roles based on the attributes "pure methodology," respectively. Compara- rather than the performances of a person. tive sociological studies represent an attempt to develop concepts and generalizations at a * Revision of a paper presented to the Fifth level between what is true of all societies and World Congress of Sociology, Washington, Septem- ber, 1962, and published in its original form in what is true of one society at one point in Transactions of the Fifth World Congress of Soci- time and space. In fact, many sociological ology, Louvain: International Sociological Asso- concepts impIy such an "intermediate level" ciation, 1963. I am indebted to my colleagues Wit- of analysis, though frequently they are used liam Petersen and Neil Smelser for their criticisms of the earlier draft. as if they applied universally. COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGICAL STUDIES 533 CONCEPTS OF LIMITED APPLICABILITY tangled conceptually, and once untangled each of these dimensions would be universal. Concepts of socio-historical configurations Perhaps so, but it has yet to be demonstrated are a case in point. Stratification is present that this gain in universality is not obtained in all societies, but stratification by "class" at the expense of analytic utility. So far it is present only in some. Classes depend upon appears to me that it is necessary to use the voluntary coalescence of interests among "composite concepts" if one wishes to apply individuals and thus they differ from strati- concepts rather than elaborate them de- fication by "estate," or court-rank, or clan- ductively. Hence I see the utility of logical affiliation. Again, the exercise of authority decomposition more in the clarification of requires subordinate agents everywhere, but concepts than as a ground for abandoning their organization in a "bureaucracy" is a them. more specific phenomenon. Bureaucracy in Usually, we meet these difficulties by con- the sense of Max Weber's concept of govern- structing a contrast-conception. "Bureauc- mental organization under the rule of law racy" is hardly a usable concept as long as applies principally to the countries of it stands alone. It gains clarity when we con- Northwestern Europe from the nineteenth trast it with the "patrimonial" form of gov- century onward. However, several elements ernment, as Max Weber has done, because of bureaucratic organization can be found in this way we learn of a non-bureaucratic centuries earlier, as T. F. Tout has docu- type of government administration that has mented in his five-volume work, deceptively a century-long development of its own. entitled Chapters in the Administrative His- Again, stratification by "class" is a better tory of England. Also, elements from the analytic tool when contrasted with alterna- "bureaucratic" complex have been adopted tive types of stratification. While such paired in many countries throughout history-with concepts are never wholly satisfactory, they varying success to be sure. do enable us to delimit the space-and-time Such historical delimitations of the ap- dimension of a given concept to some e~tent.~ plicability of a concept are clear only in Comparative analysis reveals also that principle; they are very vague in practice. many concepts are generalizations in dis- Though it is possible to date the inception guise. Urbanism is a case in point, as are of "bureaucracy" in England from the other concepts of complex structures, such Northcote-Trevelyan Reforms of 186 1, even as industrial society, bureaucracy, democ- so marked an institutional innovation is no racy, feudalism, caste society, etc., together more than a "high-water mark" of changes with related "developmental" terms, such in English administration whose century- as urbanization, industrialization, and so old continuity can be documented easily. on. These concepts define social structures The delimitation in time and space of other with regard to their several distinguishing sociological concepts presents even greater characteristics. If we are to refer to social difficulties, since most such concepts are not structures, we must define a cluster of at- reflected in legal or administrative docu- tributes that distinguishes one structure ment~.~Thus it is both difficult to identify from an~ther.~It is a fiction to suppose that the space-and-time dimensions of certain sociological concepts and difficult to deny 2 1prefer to avoid the term "ideal type" since it that they possess an historically limited ap- requires too many explanations of its meaning to plicability. It may be argued that this is be useful. Cf. the earlier discussion of "paired con- cepts" in Reinhard Bendix and Bennett Berger, all the more reason for treating such con- "Images of Society and Problems of Concept-For- cepts as