Political Change Explanation In Historical Sociology

Political change research is an important topic in political science research and even social science research.It focuses on the development and changes in the political field in social life,specifically including discussions on changes in political systems,political culture and other aspects.The study of political change is based on the accurate description of political phenomena and uses the dimension of time to establish connections between new and old political forms.Therefore,political change is an exploration of political relationships and political laws.The significance of the study of political change is that it deepens the understanding of political phenomena and enables political theory to be applied to the historical dimension.On the other hand,a better understanding of the history of politics can provide a deeper understanding of current politics and a better understanding of current politics,at the same time predict political trends.Historical sociology is a discipline that focuses on social and political changes.It draws academic nutrients from history,sociology,political science,cultural anthropology and other disciplines,focusing on issues related to historical changes.The disciplinary preference of historical sociology is to rely on history to study political issues.Major political changes in human history,such as changes in the international situation,major wars and revolutions,and profound political reforms,are all hot issues in its research.There are two basic orientations in historical sociology research,one is based on history,and the other is based on the methods and traditions of social sciences.Such a disciplinary foundation has enabled it to maintain continued academic appeal,especially in the discussion of political changes,which has always been focused on by the academic community.As an interdisciplinary subject,historical sociology matured in the 1960 s.Since its birth,it has maintained a focus on political changes.This academic tradition began with Karl Marx and Max Weber and continued in the 20 th century.Barrington Moore,Perry Anderson,Charles Tilly,Theda Skocpol and others carried it forward.Today,within the subject field of historical sociology,a rather large academic system has been formed around the issue of political change.These different academic works have become contentious,and historical sociologists have launched research on different issues and methods.Rich discussions,and the explanation of political changes in historical sociology shows different characteristics from the discussion of political changes in disciplines such as history and political science.Therefore,it is necessary to systematically summarize and refine relevant research,and integrate historical sociology into the study of political changes.The different orientations of change can be explained clearly,the core of which is to clarify different explanatory approaches.Through these different explanatory approaches,we can not only deepen our understanding of the issue of political change itself,but also promote the improvement of historical sociology discipline theory,and then Achieve exchanges and dialogues in different academic fields.In summary,historical sociology shows three clear orientations in explaining political changes,namely,the "overall-duration" explanation path,the structural explanation path,and the cultural explanation path.Among them,the "overall-duration" explanatory path was born from the tradition of historical sociology that attaches great importance to the time dimension.As an interdisciplinary subject,one of the backgrounds of the birth of historical sociology is the vigilance against the over-scientificization of social and political research.Therefore,it pays special attention to the academic resources provided by history.This academic resource is both in terms of the historical data itself.In other words,in terms of the academic tradition of history as a humanities discipline,historical sociology has benefited a lot.The outstanding manifestation of the historical research tradition in the study of political change in historical sociology is the "overall-duration" style,which uses an explanatory preference based on a holistic,long-term perspective to deal with numerous cases of political change,and has thus become a It is a unique explanation path that does not resist microscopic historical facts,but uses holistic thinking to understand and express political changes at different levels.It can be said that the "overall-duration" explanation path is a historical sociological explanation.The primary style of political change.The structural explanation approach is rooted in the tradition of social science research and emphasizes the shaping of actors by the structural background,that is,actors’ decisions and actions are limited by structural conditions.This explanation tradition has long occupied the social science research field.important location.Its theoretical advantage is that it is more systematic when analyzing political changes,and the entire process of change is understood as a more standardized input and output procedure.In the specific application of this article,we will focus on the resource and restrictive attributes of structure.That is to say,for political changes,structural elements may either promote their occurrence or become the reasons that hinder their occurrence.Prominent structural factors include not only political systems,but also physical and geographical environment and other conditions.Structural analysis represents an objectological meaning,that is,human actions and political changes are restricted by objective conditions.At the same time,structural explanation also shows the characteristics of reductionism,which seems to be more convenient for theoretical construction.In contrast,the cultural explanation approach believes that structural explanations ignore the autonomy of actors.Culturalists believe that in political changes,the subjective will of actors is also a factor that cannot be ignored,and sometimes even plays a decisive role.Typical cultural elements include social and cultural traditions,political ideologies,etc.Cultural explanations believe that in major political changes,political leaders ’ strategic choices are not only framed by structural conditions,but also by the culture in which they are immersed.The profound influence of environment,such as beliefs,education,ideology,etc.Moreover,in cultural analysis,it also reflects the reflection on reductionism.That is to say,cultural analysis pays more attention to the processing of micro historical data,and various relationships in political changes will be observed and analyzed as much as possible.Be described and analyzed.All in all,the "overall-duration" explanation path,the structural explanation path,and the cultural explanation path are the three typical styles of historical sociology in explaining political changes.Their respective materials and methods are different.When systematically analyzing them,On the basis of the summary,the advantages and shortcomings of the three paths should also be objectively evaluated.This evaluation should be conducted from an interdisciplinary perspective,the degree of openness to different approaches,and the use of comparative methods.Based on such evaluation criteria,it can be seen that historical sociology’s explanation of political changes has achieved the transcendence of political history research in history,improved related research within political science,and demonstrated an orientation to reconcile the relationship between micro and macro perspectives.