A Comparative Historical Method: Attempts to study social revolutions have been avoided because most feel as though there are not enough cases to conclude from. The Marxist theory has been used the most due to its historically grounded categories. These theorists have found class struggles and changes in class relations that arise during revolutions, but have been unable to conclude whether these factors vary between revolutions and other transformations. However, even this seemingly better method of analysis “missed identifying the distinctive political-institutional changes that set revolutions apart from nonrevolutionary patterns of national development”. The comparative historical method aids in developing an explanation for revolutions that shows both general patterns of causes and outcomes as well as aspects that are particular to each case. Within this method, two or more historical trajectories (nation-states, institutional complexes, or civilizations) are compared side by side. Even further, there is a comparative historical analysis, which develops, tests, and refines hypotheses about occurrences crucial to nation-states. This method is made specifically to explain phenomena of which there are only a few existing cases. Problems with this method include trouble finding the historical case needed for a comparison; the method assumes the two events being compared and independent from one another, but that is not the case with revolutions; and lastly, it can only be applied in addition to another theory.