Comparative Process Tracing – Making Historical Comparison Focused
Bo Bengtsson, Uppsala University and Hannu Ruonavaara, University of Turku
Abstract:
Comparative process tracing (CPT) is a theoretically informed methodological approach that takes the path dependence of social and political processes seriously, combining elements of theory, chronology and comparison in order to make some general inference possible. Our version of CPT is influenced by historical institutionalism in political science and comparative historical analysis in sociology. The paper presents the general logic of CPT and discusses some critical aspects and possible problems.
We see comparative process tracing as an analysis in two steps. In the first step the goal is, very briefly, to reconstruct for each investigated case the process leading ‘from A to B’. If this reconstruction is informed by social theory and analysed in terms of ideal type social mechanisms we claim that the findings can be made portable to other similar contexts on the basis of an assumption of thin rationality. In the second step, these processes are compared in terms of the social mechanisms identified and by making use of some ideal type periodization.
We have, together with others, applied CPT in a comparative historical analysis of the housing policies of five Nordic countries. The findings and experiences from that project are used as illustration and as input for some reflections on the value of our approach and on how to develop it further.
