Simulation and social theory

Abstract

Currently, there are many social theories but none which have been formally tested because, in macrosociology, replication under genuinely comparable conditions has not been possible. A research strategy based on computer simulations is described that gives sociologists a practical quantitative technique for testing social theories and for comparing alternative hypotheses under identical research conditions. The strategy is demonstrated on a social theory of change in normative systems and illustrated with one of the empirical data sets that have been used to test the theory.