Theories Of State Formation Research Articles

The Politics of State Formation: Contradictions and Conditions of Possibility

This article discusses the prospects of state building in contemporary weak states. It seeks to address the following question: what are the conditions of state formation in the contemporary world? Against the background of theories of state formation, the author discusses how regime interests and struggles for political survival determine political developments in weak states. More than anything else, it is argued that the prospect of state formation depends on the nature of domestic power relations. What makes state building so difficult is that regimes in weak states may not have an interest in creating a stronger state. Moreover, the particular combination of internal power relations and external constraints faced by weak states makes the task extremely difficult. Given the class structure of most existing weak states (weak bourgeoisie, weak working class, informal economy, peasant societies), the very sections of society with whom regimes might align themselves to build a stronger state have nothing ...

Causes of Tax Reform in Latin America, 1977–95

Among the policy changes associated with neoliberalism in Latin America, tax reform has played a leading role as it has been crucial not only to price stabilization but also to managing economic liberalization. But it also has a larger significance, since it involved a reconstitution of core state powers, and these could prove useful to any future government that seeks to expand the state's economic role. This paper seeks to determine its causes more precisely by analyzing data from fifteen Latin American countries from 1977 to 1995. Findings show that the definition of “tax reform” has been remarkably similar across the region with less progressivity, fewer exemptions, a new leading role for the value-added tax (VAT), and the strengthening of tax administration. The data analysis then finds reform is predicted by (in roughly descending importance) past inflation, explicit IMF performance conditions, new administrations, more authoritarian-elected governments, the dominance of the president's party in the legislature, established electoral systems, closed-list proportional representation, less polarized party systems, and more numerous parties. Little or no support exists for the causal importance of past changes in gross domestic product (GDP), the constitutional powers of the president, party institutionalization, or partisan balance. The analysis concludes by placing these results in historical context, referring to theories of state formation and the building of institutions in exchange for resources.

Theft by Bandits and Taxation by Kings: A Critique of Mancur Olson on State-Formation

In Power and Prosperity (2000), Mancur Olson argued that bandits who permanently monopolise theft in a given location would limit their own requisitions, protect their victims from theft carried out by others and possibly even provide public goods for their victims. Such stationary and monopolist bandits would effectively transform themselves into autocratic rulers of pristine states. I argue that Olson's ideas do not constitute a satisfactory theory of stateformation for two main reasons. First, kleptocracy, which is a condition of competitive theft, represents an equilibrium according to Olson. So there exists no reason to believe that theft will become monopolised. Second, in Olson's theory, if a monopolist bandit exists, then a monopolist on violence presumably also exists. So having a ‘monopolist on violence’ seems to constitute both ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ in his account. However, if properly revised, his basic insights might nevertheless furnish an important hypothesis from which a more satisfactory theory of state-formation could be constructed.

Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America

Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America

State formation from below: the Turkish case

This essay focuses on the state-formation theory through the lens of the Turkish state-formation experience. The movements of resistance against state-formation in Turkey such as the internal struggles based on ideological and cultural factors, social banditry, military desertion, ethnic and religiously inspired uprisings, and non-Muslim and non-Turkish opposition are analyzed in the context of a model which has been developed in this study. According to this model state-formation is linked to a wide range of practices of social resistance. To provide the means of exploring the mechanisms of the processes of state-formation that are unintended and unplanned responses provoked by various types of resistance, their impact, not directly on institutional state-formation, but rather on the cultural and ideological dimensions of the same processes has to be carved out.

Theories of State Formation and Civilisation in Johann P. Arnason and Shmuel Eisenstadt's Comparative Sociologies of Japan

Johann Arnason and Shmuel Eisenstadt's social theories have remarkably different origins. Yet each has moved onto common ground with the other over a period of time. They meet in historical sociology in dialogue over theories of state formation and images of civilisation. Each is engaged in a project of revising civilisations sociology that reaches an apex with the comparative study of Japan. Their groundbreaking contributions can be read critically against a wider background of debates about postcolonialism, the reputation of the notion of civilisation and the state of area studies in the humanities and social sciences.

Constructing “Korean” Origins: A Critical Review of Archaeology, Historiography, and Racial Myth in Korean State‐Formation Theories

Constructing “Korean” Origins: A Critical Review of Archaeology, Historiography, and Rascial Myth in Korean State‐Formation Theories. Hyung ll Pai Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 2000. xv + 543 PP., figures, maps, appendixes, notes, bibliography, glossary, index.

State Formation Theory and the Kingdom of Ancient Israel

Previous articleNext article No AccessState Formation Theory and the Kingdom of Ancient IsraelDaniel M. MasterDaniel M. Master Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 60, Number 2Apr., 2001 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/468899 Views: 49Total views on this site Citations: 10Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 2001 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Elon D. Heymans The Origins of Money in the Iron Age Mediterranean World, 13 (Sep 2021).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108975322Brad E. Kelle The Early Monarchy and the Stories of Saul, David, and Solomon, (Dec 2015): 176–196.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118774199.ch10 Daniel M. Master Economy and Exchange in the Iron Age Kingdoms of the Southern Levant, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 372 (Nov 2018): 81–97.https://doi.org/10.5615/bullamerschoorie.372.0081Roger S Nam POWER RELATIONS IN THE SAMARIA OSTRACA, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 144, no.33 (Nov 2013): 155–163.https://doi.org/10.1179/0031032812Z.00000000015Kenneth N. Wallace Breaking boundaries: IGCP 521 database and science informatics, Quaternary International 225, no.22 (Oct 2010): 235–240.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2009.10.040Ze'ev Herzog, Lily Singer-Avitz Sub-Dividing the Iron Age IIA in Northern Israel: A Suggested Solution to the Chronological Debate, Tel Aviv 33, no.22 (Jul 2013): 163–195.https://doi.org/10.1179/tav.2006.2006.2.163Ze'ev Herzog Reviews, Mediterranean Historical Review 21, no.11 (Jan 2007): 115–155.https://doi.org/10.1080/09518960600714688Pamela Barmash Homicide in the Biblical World, 9 (Nov 2009).https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614170BENJAMIN W. PORTER AUTHORITY, POLITY, AND TENUOUS ELITES IN IRON AGE EDOM (JORDAN), Oxford Journal of Archaeology 23, no.44 (Nov 2004): 373–395.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00216.xAlexander Fantalkin Mezad Hashavyahu: Its Material Culture and Historical Background, Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University 28, no.11 (Mar 2001): 3–165.https://doi.org/10.1179/033443501788056337

Warfare, Political Leadership, and State Formation: The Case of the Zulu Kingdom, 1808-1879

The origin and evolution of the nineteenth-century Zulu Kingdom are used to examine two competing state formation theories: Robert Carneiro's circumscription theory and Elman Service's theory of institutionalized leadership. Both theories partly clarify Zulu political developments: Carneiro's explains the origin and territorial expansion of the Zulu empire, while Service's can account for the beginning differentiation of political roles in the Zulu state. Two alternative explanations of the causes of Zulu state formation are discussed to integrate the diverging theoretical perspectives of Carneiro and Service. First, the role of the Zulu king, Shaka, should be considered politically relevant only inasmuch as Shaka's wars of conquest were instrumental for the unification of the Zulu Kingdom. Second, further developments in Zulu politics involved limited structural change from dispersed tribes to a unified military state. The analysis of political formations, including their origin and further transformation, should not be conducted in unilinear evolutionary terms, but from a multidimensional processual perspective. (State formation, circumscription theory, institutionalized leadership, Zulu Kingdom) The development of the Zulu Kingdom is one of the most remarkable and extensively documented case studies in the history of state formation. The rise of the Zulu empire over a relatively short period of time, its powerful expansion over a wide territory, the overwhelming violence and terror involved, and the brutal European overthrow of the regime have long attracted scholarly attention from historians, anthropologists, and sociologists of African political systems. In this article, two theories of state formation are applied to the development of the Zulu Kingdom: Robert Carneiro's circumscription theory (Carneiro 1970) and Elman Service's theory of institutionalized leadership (Service 1975). These theories represent two influential perspectives in the historical study of state formation, but they have not yet been carefully tested in light of the Zulu case. This is particularly remarkable given the widely acknowledged analytical merit of both theories as well as the historical significance of the evolution of the Zulu political structure. This essay therefore undertakes an examination that may prove valuable to assess the strengths and limitations of two theories of state formation in light of a significant episode in the history of African indigenous politics. I also seek to advance ideas that may aid in breaking through all too commonly held conceptions of state formation processes due to a nearly exclusive orientation on European political processes. My analysis rests on the assumption that political systems developed autonomously in precolonial times in Africa (and elsewhere) that were of sufficient complexity to be discussed in terms of state formations, yet that have to be explained by theoretical models that take into account specific conditions of time and place which set them apart from their European counterparts. After outlining the main theses of Carneiro's circumscription theory and Service's theory of institutionalized leadership and deriving testable propositions from a comparison of both, I present a brief history of the Zulu Kingdom from its formation to the European destruction of the empire (1808-1879) and trace the factors that can account for the evolution of Zulu politics in terms of Carneiro's and Service's state formation theories, indicating the strengths and limitations of the theories. Two alternative explanations of Zulu political processes will also be considered: the role of the Zulu kings, particularly Shaka; and the nature of Zulu political developments from dispersed tribes to a unified political entity. These lead to a discussion of the applicability of Carneiro's and Service's state formation theories to the case of the Zulu Kingdom. I conclude by suggesting the need for a multidimensional processual framework of political developments that combines coercive and integrative mechanisms to explain the dynamic nature of political formations and transformations. …

Het geheel is meer dan de som der delen maar zeker ook minder: politiek en de staat in de Wereld-systeemtheorie van Immanuel Wallerstein

The world-systems theory of Immanuel Wallerstein aims to see processes of social change from a macrosociological position. This means the state loses the primarily place it always had in traditional political sciences. Starting from Rokkan’s theory of state-formation and nation-building, this article wants to focus upon the position of the state in world-systems theory. Wallerstein uses the concept of state in a rather constructionist way: states are viewed as institutions who are deliberately created by a certain class with the intention to affect some economic processes. Once created, the states' operations are decisively influenced by its hierarchical position in the world¬ system and its economic phase. The article concludes that world-system analysis needs a greater stress on the individual within the state and the system as a whole to cope with its current emancipational problems.

The familial state: Elite family practices and state-making in the early modern Netherlands

In early modern Europe, as every schoolchild learns, states and elite families were often closely interlocked. Yet family history and state theory are generally studied separately today. I try' here to unite them by underlining the central role of family lineages and gender identities in the formation of patrimonial political structures, focussing on the Netherlands, a precocious and influential developer along a number of social and cultural dimensions? My thinking about this problem has been guided by several general questions. When did elite families and lineages anchor political stability, or contribute to political change? How did gender arrangements complement or crosscut these familial patterns? What are the implications for theories of state formation? In the Netherlands, I argue, elite male family heads seized hold of local state offices, constituting themselves as a regent patriciate. 2 Over time, increasing familial exclusiveness and the changing class character of the regents interacted with the axial position of the Dutch in the emergent world economy. The regents' dynastic grip contributed to the rise of the Netherlands as long as a locally-centered patrimonial state was an effective form of rule. But when competitor states took the first steps beyond patrimonialism toward a rational-legal bureaucratic apparatus staffed by means of patronage, the persistence of the Dutch familial state undermined the politico-economic viability of the Netherlands in the world economy. Thus, I argue that elite family patterns and dynamics in the Netherlands were one cause of that country's spectacular rise and decline. In all patrimonial states, state officials had two concerns: securing the state that provided their office, and maintaining the status and wealth of their families and lineages. During some periods, these goals could be jointly achieved - at others, not. In the latter case, efforts by office

The Political Impact of Trade in Chiefdoms

Trade theories of state formation have failed to specify trade as market behavior, and to appreciate the political role of imported luxury goods in chiefdoms. When luxury goods and other valuable commodities become available through the market rather than through interpersonal, chiefly exchanges, the elite's power depends increasingly on economic exploitation and the control of arms. Archeological data from several locales illustrate the disruptive and formative effects of trade diasporas in chiefdoms.

Cross‐currents in the theory of state formation

Development and Decline: The Evolution of Sociopolitical Organization. HENRI J. M. CLAESSEN, PIETER VAN DE VELDE, and M. ESTELLIE SMITH

The Ahom Political System: An Enquiry into the State Formation Process in Medieval Assam (1228-1714)

IN 1NTI-DUHRING (1877-78) Engels had suggested that classes and state emerged in primitive society tllrough a gradual transformation of the lnanagerial functionaries, customarily in charge of common aSairs, into an exploitative power. In that process7 a part of the community's property was transformed into private property, and the customary functional power into state power. In his Origin of Fclmily, Private Property and State (1884), Engels continued his probe and brought into focus the roles of force, wars of conquest and slavery (the latter, a form of surplus-yielding labour) as crucial factors leading to a rupture of the gentile constitution and the appearance of classes and state. While this general theory of state formation is still valid in its essentialsn there is scope for further enriching it by trying to answer questions raised but not answered by it. In this paper) we try to explain the time lag an observed fact-betsveen the emergence of property relations within a tribe and that of a state organisation per se. We also make an attempt to identify stages in the relevant political development. A11 this we try to do on the basis of fresh data from our case study of the TaiAhoms of Assam.

Archaeology and the prehistoric origins of the Ghana empire

Archaeological investigations in southern Mauretania have revealed a wealth of rather spectacular stone masonry villages which were occupied by prehistoric cultivators as early as 1000 B.C. It is argued that the inhabitants of these villages were Negro and very probably Soninke, and that the basic elements of their culture had developed without major influences from outside the area. The apparent sophistication and complexity of this cultural manifestation, combined with the close fit of developments in this area with Carneiro's theory of state formation, suggests that this prehistoric complex represented at least a powerful chiefdom which embodied many of the characteristics of subsequent West African states. The first demonstrable outside influences in the area began about 600 B.C. with the arrival of Libyco-Berbers from North Africa. Rather than causing still further cultural advances, the initial effect of this contact was the collapse of this sociopolitical organization. But with subsequent adjustment, plus the potential from trans-Saharan trade carried out by the North Africans, the basic, pre-existing pattern re-emerged, resulting eventually in a second and much more powerful African political organization in this area – the Ghana Empire.

Was the "Solomonic" City Gate at Megiddo Built by King Solomon?: A Rejoinder

Previous articleNext article No AccessWas the "Solomonic" City Gate at Megiddo Built by King Solomon?: A RejoinderYigael YadinYigael Yadin Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research Volume 239Summer 1980 A journal of the American Schools of Oriental Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/1356753 Views: 10Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Journal History This article was published in the Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research (1921-2021), which is continued by the Bulletin of the American Schools of Overseas Research (2022-present). Copyright 1981 The American Schools of Oriental ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Daniel M. Master State Formation Theory and the Kingdom of Ancient Israel, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 60, no.22 (Oct 2015): 117–131.https://doi.org/10.1086/468899

Ecology, Culture, Social Organization, and State Formation in Southeast Asia [and Comments and Reply

In this paper I call attention to the significance of Southeast Asia to discussions of the nature of state formation. While it is now apparent that certain phases of cultural evolution came early in Southeast Asia, the state was a late and, in some respects, incomplete development. Southeast Asian states do not appear to have developed into the fully centralized, highly stratified, totalitarian regimes held to typify other regions of Asia, such as China or India. I suggest that this is not easily accounted for in terms of recent comparative theories of state formation or in terms of the interpretations contained in the writings of Southeast Asianists. I suggest finally that features of Southeast Asian social organization provide the most useful focus of analysis for explaining what did and did not occur in Southeast Asia and then discuss the question of how these features may have come into being.

King Solomon's Palaces

Previous articleNext article No AccessKing Solomon's PalacesDavid UssishkinDavid Ussishkin Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 36, Number 3September 1973 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/3211070 Views: 9Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Journal History This article was published in The Biblical Archaeologist (1938-1997), which is continued by Near Eastern Archaeology (1998-present). Copyright 1973 American Schools of Oriental ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Daniel M. Master State Formation Theory and the Kingdom of Ancient Israel, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 60, no.22 (Oct 2015): 117–131.https://doi.org/10.1086/468899