The Scope of General Theory

Abstract

A “holy war” is being fought within comparative historical sociology between deductivists and inductivists over the scope of general theory. The issues include broad versus narrow scope conditions, explicit versus contingent theorizing, and theory testing versus theory building. The irony of the conflict is that each side makes ample use of the other's product, despite condemning its progenitor. The authors offer a hierarchical approach to qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) as a method for linking deductive and inductive approaches, and link QCA to game theory as a way to design more dynamic comparative studies. The authors illustrate this method through a split labor market analysis of interracial conflict and cooperation in nine U.S. labor organizing drives.