The Sovereign State and Its Competitors An Analysis of Systems Change

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Spruyt, Hendrik, Author.

Contributor:

Spruyt, Hendrik, 1956-

Series:

Princeton studies in international history and politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sovereignty.

Politics and government.

Europe.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 288 pages) : illustration, maps

Edition:

2. print. [af 1994].

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2021

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1996.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

LIST OF MAPS AND TABLES

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PART I: CONTINGENCY, CHOICE, AND CONSTRAINT

CHAPTER 1 Structural Change in International Relations

CHAPTER 2 Organizational Variation and Selection in the International System

CHAPTER 3 Modes of Nonterritorial Organization: Feudalism, the Church, and the Holy Roman Empire

PART II: THE EMERGENCE OF NEW MODES OF ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER 4 The Economic Renaissance of the Late Middle Ages

CHAPTER 5 The Rise of the Sovereign, Territorial State in Capetian France

CHAPTER 6 The Fragmentation of the German Empire and the Rise of the Hanseatic League

CHAPTER 7 The Development of the Italian City-states

PART III: COMPETITION, MUTUAL EMPOWERMENT, AND CHOICE: THE ADVANTAGES OF SOVEREIGN TERRITORIALITY

CHAPTER 8 The Victory of the Sovereign State

PART IV: CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 9 Character, Tempo, and Prospects for Change in the International System

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [265]-283) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691213057

0691213054

OCLC:

1227050567