Table Of Content|
The Domestication of Competition
Competition is deeply built into the structures of modern life. It can
improve policies, products and services, but is also seen as a divisive
burdenthatpitspeopleagainstoneanother.Thisbookseekstogobeyond
suchcaricaturesbyadvancinganewthesisabouthowcompetitioncameto
shapeoursociety.JonathanHearnarguesthatcompetitionwas‘domesti-
cated’, harnessed and institutionalised across a range of institutional
spheres in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Responding
to crises in traditional forms of authority (hereditary, religious), the for-
malisationofcompetitionintheeconomy,politics,anddiversenewforms
ofknowledgecreationprovidedanewmodeforlegitimatingdistributions
of power in the emerging liberal societies. This insightful study aims to
improveourabilitytothinkcriticallyaboutcompetition,bybetterunder-
standingitsintegralrole,forgoodandill,inhowliberal formsof society
work.
jonathanhearnisProfessorofPoliticalandHistoricalSociologyatthe
UniversityofEdinburghandPresidentoftheAssociationfortheStudyof
EthnicityandNationalism.Hispublishedwritingsexplorethemesofsocial
power, nationalism and identity, Scotland and its Enlightenment, liberal
andcivilsociety,andcompetition.
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The Domestication
of Competition
Social Evolution and Liberal Society
jonathan hearn
UniversityofEdinburgh
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781009199155
DOI:10.1017/9781009199131
©JonathanHearn2023
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Names:Hearn,Jonathan,author.
Title:Thedomesticationofcompetition:socialevolutionandliberalsociety/Jonathan
Hearn,UniversityofEdinburgh.
Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,
2023.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2022045889(print)|LCCN2022045890(ebook)|ISBN
9781009199155(hardback)|ISBN9781009199148(paperback)|ISBN
9781009199131(epub)
Subjects:LCSH:Competition–Socialaspects.|Competition(Psychology)–Socialaspects.
Classification:LCCHB238.H432023(print)|LCCHB238(ebook)|DDC338.6/048–
dc23/eng/20221005
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Contents
List of Figures and Tables pagevii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
WhyDoesItMatter? 2
DefiningCompetition 4
TheDomesticationofCompetition 9
Overview 12
Part I The Ideas 17
1 The Contextof the Question 21
TheRiseoftheWest 21
Nationalism 30
Neoliberalism 38
Conclusion 45
2 The Theoretical Approach 47
Power 50
Actors 55
Evolution 62
Conclusion 69
Part II The Analytic Narrative 71
3 The Decline of TraditionalAuthority and theRise
of Corporate Actors 77
KinshipandWorldlyPower 79
ReligionandImaginaryPower 86
LawandConstructedPower 93
Conclusion 106
4 From Militias to Militaries 109
FeudalMilitarism 110
MilitaryChangeandtheRiseoftheModernState 113
v
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vi Contents
TheModernMilitary 124
Conclusion 129
5 FromAdventurers toCompanies 131
Precursors 136
TheFlorescenceofJointStockCompanies 142
TheNewLeviathans 150
TheTraditionofCritique 155
Conclusion 158
6 FromFactions to Parties 162
ThePrehistoryofParties(Britain) 167
TheFormationofModernMassParties(theUS) 172
Excursus:AdversarialLawandtheCivilService 183
Conclusion 186
7 FromChurches to Universities 191
TheTwoSidesofCivilSociety 193
TheMedievalChurchandUniversity 200
Interlude:TheEnlightenmentandtheEmergenceofCivilSociety 206
TheRiseofUniversities 212
Conclusion 222
PartIII The Wider View 225
8 The Culture of Competition 229
TheCultureConcept 229
CultureasLegitimatingBeliefs 233
CultureasPerformativePractices 237
CompetitionasRitual 241
Conclusion 251
9 The Critique ofCompetition 252
LevelPlayingFieldsandtheImageoftheGame 254
SpheresofCompetition 258
TheEvolvingBalanceofPower 263
CriticismfromWithin 266
Conclusion 271
Conclusion 274
References 282
Index 313
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Figures and Tables
Figures
8.1 Atypologyof competition rituals page 249
Tables
II.1 Thedirectionsof changeacross the four spheres of
power processes page74
vii
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Acknowledgements
This book was a while in coming. It has its origins in a midcareer
fellowship from the Independent Social Research Foundation in
2013–2014 (Grant RA2401), which started me thinking about this
topic in depth and realising its scope. Along the way, a book I was
previouslycommittedtowriteandafour-yearperiodofdepartmental
headshipgavemefurtherreasonstotakemytime.Butatlast,aperiod
ofsabbatical granted by theSubject Area ofSociologyand theSchool
of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh, along
with the strictures of apandemic, gave me thechance towriteit.
Academicworkisalwaysheavilyindebtedtoawidercommunityof
scholars who test one’s ideas through criticism and feedback. I am
gratefulfortheopportunitiestopresentideasfromvariouspartsofthis
book in conferences and workshops at the University of Chicago
Center of Beijing at Renmin University, Zhejiang University, Institute
for the Study of Christianity and Culture at International Christian
University in Tokyo, University College Dublin, the University of
Warwick, Girton College at Cambridge University, and the
University of Edinburgh. In these events and other contexts, I have
particularly benefitted from comments from Arianna Andreangeli,
Julie Brownlie, Raul Carstocea, Phil Cerny, Simon Clarke, Graham
Crow,WillDavies,JohnA.Hall,IainHardie,GeoffreyHodgson,Poul
F.Kjaer,JohnLeviMartin,JamesMcAlister,DavidMcCrone,Lindsay
Patterson, John Scott, Liz Stanley, Yanfei Sun, Tobias Werron,
Andreas Wimmer, Naoki Yajima, and Dingxin Zhao. I am grateful
to these people and the anonymous reviewers of articles and book
proposalsfortheircriticalfeedback.Forthebookitself,Ihavebenefit-
ted especially from the careful reading of a draft by Graham Crow,
whichimprovedmywritingandgavemefurtherthingstothinkabout,
andfromtheintellectualsupportandencouragementofJohnA.Hall,
who also read a draft and whose criticisms prodded me to state more
fully in the Conclusion my worries about the state of domesticated
viii
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Acknowledgements ix
competition in the present. I’d also like to thank the CUP editorial
team, John Haslam, Toby Ginsberg, Shaheer Husanne, and Emma
Lockley, for their guidance and support. As usual, despite all these
contributions, only I am accountable for the book’s contents
and arguments.
Finally,thesteadypatienceandloveofmyfamily,Lovel,Iskra,and
Gale, have helped me keep the world in perspective despite its twists
and turns, and despite immersing myself in the writing of another
book. I come up forair because of you.
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