For many years scholars have sought to explain why the European states which emerged in the period before the French Revolution developed along such different lines. Why did some become absolutist and others constitutionalist? What enabled some to develop bureaucratic administrative systems, while others remained dependent upon patrimonial practices? This book presents a new theory of state-building in medieval and early modern Europe. Ertman argues that two factors - the organisation of l...

Bringing together historians and political scientists, this unique collaboration compares nineteenth-century civil societies that failed to develop lasting democracies with civil societies that succeeded. Much of the current literature on the connection between civil society and consolidating democracy focuses exclusively on single, contemporary polities that are ever-changing and uncertain. By studying historical cases, the authors are able to demonstrate which civil societies developed i...

This book brings together for the first time in English internationally-recognized specialists who seek to identify what is 'living' and what is 'dead' in the great German social scientist Max Weber's analyses of China, India and Ancient Israel found in his massive, unfinished Economic Ethic of the World Religions. In so doing, the volume offers a powerful new perspective on the current debate concerning the timing of and deeper roots of the 'Great Divergence' - and more recent convergence...