Table Of ContentSTATE FORMATION, REGIME
CHANGE, AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
Failed or weak states, miscarried democratizations, and economic underdevelop-
ment characterize a large part of the world we live in. Much work has been done
on these subjects over the latest decades, but most of this research ignores the deep
historical processes that produced the modern state, modern democracy, and the
modern market economy in the first place.
This book elucidates the roots of these developments. The book discusses why
China was surpassed by Europeans in spite of its early development of advanced
economic markets and a meritocratic state. It also hones in on the relationship
between geopolitical pressure and state formation and on the European conditions
that – from the Middle Ages onwards – facilitated the development of the modern
state, modern democracy, and the modern market economy. Finally, the book dis-
cusses why some countries have been able to follow the European lead in the latest
generations whereas other countries have not.
State Formation, Regime Change, and Economic Development will be of key interest
to students and researchers within political science and history as well as to Com-
parative Politics, Political Economy, and the Politics of Developing Areas.
Jørgen Møller is Professor at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus Univer-
sity, Denmark.
“Recently social scientists have begun re-visiting historical processes of state for-
mation, regime change and economic development. This book will be a must-read
in this emerging and exciting field of study, providing an outstanding overview
of past classics and current debates as well as offering promising and provocative
insights into how scholarship might move forward.”
Sheri Berman, Barnard College, USA
“If you haven’t read the classics on state and regime formation, read Møller. If you
have read the classics on state and regime formation, but need a brilliant synthesis
and a thought-provoking independent argument, read Møller.”
Jan Teorell, Lund University, Sweden
“This book provides a clear and concise overview of the classical and contempo-
rary social science literature, both qualitative and quantitative, on the origins of the
modern state, modern democracy and modern market economy. It is unmatched
in its even-handedness, acuity of judgement and geographic coverage. In addition,
it casts new light on the conditions that led to the emergence of representative
institutions in medieval Europe. A must read for anyone interested in the current
debates on the divergence (and recent convergence) in economic and political
development between the West and Asia.”
Thomas Ertman, New York University, USA
STATE FORMATION,
REGIME CHANGE,
AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
Jørgen Møller
First published 2017
by Routledge
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© 2017 Jørgen Møller
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CONTENTS
List of figures vii
List of tables viii
Preface ix
Introduction 1
PART I
Big questions 9
1 State formation, regime change, and economic development 11
2 Comparative historical analysis 18
PART II
Classic comparative historical analyses 29
3 The classic analyses I: Tocqueville 31
4 The classic analyses II: Weber 45
5 The classic analyses III: Schumpeter, Hintze, and Bloch 59
PART III
The Barrington-Moore research programme 75
6 Barrington Moore and the rebirth of the discipline 77
vi Contents
7 Perry Anderson on the absolutist state 88
8 Skocpol: revolutions and the state 98
9 War, state formation, and regime change: Tilly, Downing,
and Ertman 107
PART IV
Recent contributions 123
10 Representative institutions redux 125
11 The West versus the rest: the debate on the great divergence 139
12 Europe and the emergence of the market economy 151
13 Colonization processes, economic growth, and political
development 160
14 War and state formation in ancient China 172
15 War and state formation in Latin America and
Sub-Saharan Africa 180
16 Neo-Weberian perspectives on state formation and
regime change 195
PART V
Explaining the rise of representative institutions 207
17 The theoretical argument 209
18 The methodological challenges 219
19 The empirical evidence 228
20 The general conclusions 245
Conclusions 250
Bibliography 255
Index 269
FIGURES
12.1 The primacy of political institutions 152
12.2 The full causal chain 156
13.1 Colonial transplantation of institutions and economic growth 161
13.2 The spurious modernization relationship 166
17.1 Regime change as a function of the onset of geopolitical
competition and the presence (absence) of a multiplicity of
autonomous groups 212
18.1 Diffusion and cross-spatial autocorrelation 221
18.2 Analysing first incidences 223
18.3 Scoping up in comparisons 223
18.4 Analysing timing 225
TABLES
1.1 Ertman’s typology over states in eighteenth-century Europe 13
6.1 Moore’s implicit explanatory typology with additional countries 84
7.1 Anderson’s typology of different forms of absolutism 94
8.1 Skocpol’s implicit explanatory typology with additional countries 105
9.1 Downing’s theory as explanatory typology 113
9.2 Ertman’s typology over states in eighteenth-century Europe 115
9.3 Ertman’s theory as explanatory typology (without the
independent effect of parliaments) 117
9.4 Ertman’s theory as explanatory typology (without the
independent effect of parliaments) 118
10.1 Stasavage’s mapping of representative institutions 127
10.2 Stasavage’s overview of the development in autonomous towns 134
13.1 Urbanization rates in 1500 (unit: contemporary states) 164
15.1 Herbst’s classification of African states, based on their geography 186
16.1 Disciplinary revolutions and state formation in the Netherlands
and Prussia 197
18.1 First attestations of ‘national’ representative institutions in
Western and Central Europe, 1100–1599 227
19.1 Summary of scores on the variables of geopolitical competition,
state-society relations, and regime change 243
PREFACE
The purpose of this book is to review and discuss works that have analysed his-
torical processes of state formation, regime change, and economic development.
These works contain a cornucopia of insights and enthralling observations. They
show that when it comes to the past, only the imagination sets limits. The annals of
human history contain stories of unfathomable cruelty and misery and of heroism
and achievements. At different times, people have performed miracles of statecraft,
social discipline, military exploits, and explorations of unknown lands. At other
times, human folly has led them astray, and all too often a perusal of the past upholds
the old saying that man is wolf to man. Human history contains both some of the
greatest and some of the most heartbreaking stories ever told.
Most of these stories have taken place within and are about states. This asso-
ciation is not spurious. The invention of writing systems was probably a result of
the need of the first states to manage their finances (Robinson 2009). The actual
history – told directly or indirectly by people – is therefore a history of states.
In recent centuries it has turned into a history about a particular kind of state as
the European nation-state or territorial state has displaced other forms of political
organization, including city-states and empires (Tilly 1990). Our contemporary
international system is, as scholars of international relations like to remind us, a
state-centred system.
It is therefore for good reason that the first words in the title of this book are
‘state formation’. At the same time, the modern territorial state, which emerged
over the course of the latest five hundred years, has been the basis for the democra-
tization process that has characterized the period following the French and Ameri-
can Revolutions as well as for the modern market economy, which has come into
its own in the same period. Only by understanding where states come from are we
able to understand their contemporary appearance and characteristics. And only in
this way are we able to shed light on the two next terms in the title of the book:
‘regime change’ and ‘economic development’.
