This article examines the comparative method in Max Weber's empirical works, rather than in his methodological works. He sets a question from the point of view of ‘the son of modern European cultural world': why did the culutural phenomena with universal sense,such as capitalism,appear in the West? This question is investigated thoroughly in his sociological study of religion. He compares modern Europe with other societies.
However,'modern Europe' is not uniform. Weber takes the differences in European countries into consideration. For example,we can reconstruct his famous work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism as the study around Germany. In other words,he compares Germany with other countries.
The method in his comparative studies is characterized as 'case-oriented approach' in contrast with ‘variable-oriented approach' (Ragin 1987). The goal in the case-oriented approach is to interpret a common historical outcome or process across a limited range of cases. This method is holistic: it treats cases as whole entities. The main weakness of the case-oriented approach is its tendency toward particularizing.
However,he also examines a lot of concepts in his theoretical studies. He uses these concepts as variables to interpret historical process. For example, such concepts as status group (Stand) and class are useful for interpreting and explaining bureaucracy in the modern world,especially in Germany.
Further, he describes ‘modernity' as the limit of modern Europe and his contemporary Germany in a pessimistic tone. ‘Modernity' is not a case but a combination of concept variables.
Finally, I conclude that Weber combines the case-oriented approach with the variable-oriented approach in his own fashion,and that his comparative studies performs the self-relativization of modern Europe and his contemporary Germany, which makes his works outstanding.
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