Abstract
Compares the macrohistorical approaches of A. J. Mayer's 'The Persistence of the Old Regime' (1981) and Barrington Moore, Jr.'s 'The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy' (1966). Although Mayer and Moore are both problem-oriented, and share a stucturalist-Marxist and comparative approach, their differences are more fundamental. Whereas Mayer searches for historical parallels and stresses the continuity in the spheres of culture and mentality, Moore concentrates on differences and uses a teleological perspective of modernization.