8. How does one compare dissimilar systems?
The comparison of dissimilar systems requires the identification of specific patterns of interactions between events that occur in each of the systems involved (Smelser, pp. 220-237). These patterns of interactions provide the researcher with starting points for the development of a methodological approach for the comparison of dissimilar systems. The characteristics that cause systems to be dissimilar can be structured as independent variables that may explain variations in the patterns of interactions between events that are common to each of the systems being compared. These patterns of interaction and their measurements become the dependent variables in the analysis.
Models of development provide a general framework within which the development process within a specific social system may be understood. Such models should not employed without regard for the differences between the society in which such development occurred and the societies upon which the various models of development were based. Further, a system is expected to change over time because the environments in which people live change over time. There are many ways by which models of development are classified. One of these ways is to divide the models into the following two approaches: those which posit a more or less universal transition from primitive to advanced social structures, and those which posit transitions from one specific structure to another specific structure. In each of these approaches to the analysis of social system development, the critical importance of the function of elites and of social mobilization are recognized. As an example, Guillermo O'Donnell (1986, pp. 4-11) formulated the concept of bureaucratic authoritarianism to describe the process of development in Latin American societies. O'Donnell (1986, pp. 4-11) demonstrated that through the application of bureaucratic power successf...