The Sovereign State and Its Competitors: An Analysis of Systems Change - Rilegato

Spruyt, Hendrik

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0691033560 ISBN 13: 9780691033563

Casa editrice: Princeton Univ Pr, 1994

Riassunto

The present international system, composed for the most part of sovereign, territorial states, is often viewed as the inevitable outcome of historical development. Hendrik Spruyt argues that there was nothing inevitable about the rise of the state system, however. Examining the competing institutions that arose during the decline of feudalism--among them urban leagues, independent communes, city states, and sovereign monarchies--Spruyt disposes of the familiar claim that the superior size and war-making ability of the sovereign nation-state made it the natural successor to the feudal system.

The author argues that feudalism did not give way to any single successor institution in simple linear fashion. Instead, individuals created a variety of institutional forms, such as the sovereign, territorial state in France, the Hanseatic League, and the Italian city-states, in reaction to a dramatic change in the medieval economic environment. Only in a subsequent selective phase of institutional evolution did sovereign, territorial authority prove to have significant institutional advantages over its rivals. Sovereign authority proved to be more successful in organizing domestic society and structuring external affairs. Spruyt's interdisciplinary approach not only has important implications for change in the state system in our time, but also presents a novel analysis of the general dynamics of institutional change.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

Winner of the 1996 J. David Greenstone Book Prize, American Political Science Association
"Hendrik Spruyt's book provides new and interesting analytical framework for examining--from an international perspective--the emergence of new international political systems....The book advances a bold and intriguing hypothesis....[It is] a powerful and provocative essay; the examination of its details will probably provide much work in years to come. Any economic historian who considers the state system as fundamental to European growth should read this work."--Avner Greif, Journal of Economic History

"This intriguing book argues that nation-states and territorially sovereign powers were not the only possible form of organization, and that the end of the Middle Ages saw the flowering of a variety of alternatives."--Foreign Affairs

"Spruyt ... shows that sovereign states of Europe emerged from the decline of feudalism as urban units gained freedom and formed leagues.... He also puts into perspective the European Union that today's nation-states are attempting to put together.... A significant contribution to political science and to European history."--Bibliothèque Humanisme et Renaissance

Contenuti:

	List of Maps and Tables
	Preface
	Introduction	3
Pt. I	Contingency, Choice, and Constraint	9
Ch. 1	Structural Change in International Relations	11
Ch. 2	Organizational Variation and Selection in the International System	22
Ch. 3	Modes of Nonterritorial Organization: Feudalism, the Church, and the Holy Roman Empire	34
Pt. II	The Emergence of New Modes of Organization	59
Ch. 4	The Economic Renaissance of the Late Middle Ages	61
Ch. 5	The Rise of the Sovereign, Territorial State in Capetian France	77
Ch. 6	The Fragmentation of the German Empire and the Rise of the Hanseatic League	109
Ch. 7	The Development of the Italian City-states	130
Pt. III	Competition, Mutual Empowerment, and Choice: The Advantages of Sovereign Territoriality	151
Ch. 8	The Victory of the Sovereign State	153
Pt. IV	Conclusion	181
Ch. 9	Character, Tempo, and Prospects for Change in the International System	183
	Notes	195
	Bibliography	265
	Index	285

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Princeton Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0691033560
• ISBN 13: 9780691033563
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 288