Table Of ContentThe Founding of Modern States
The Founding of Modern States is a bold comparative work that
examines the rise of the modern state through six case studies of state
formation. The book opens with an analysis of three foundings that
gave rise to democratic states in Britain, the United States, and France
andconcludeswithanevaluationofthreeformationsthatbirthednon-
democratic states in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and the Islamic
RepublicofIran.Throughacomparativeanalysisofthesegovernments,
thebookarguesthatnewstateformationsaredefinedbyametaphysical
conception of a “will of the people” through which the new state is
ritually granted sovereignty. The book stresses the paradoxical nature
of modern foundings, characterized by “mythological imaginations,”
andthesymbolicactsandritualsuponwhichastateisenabledtosecure
political and social order. An extensive study of some of the most
important events in modern history, this book offers readers novel
interpretations that will disrupt common narratives about modern
statesandthestateofourmodernworld.
richard franklin bensel is the Gary S. Davis Professor of
Government at Cornell University. He is the author of Yankee
Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority in America,
1859–1877 (1991), The American Ballot Box in the Mid-Nineteenth
Century(2004),ThePoliticalEconomyofAmericanIndustrialization,
1877–1900 (2000; J. David Greenstone Prize, 2002), Passion and
Preferences: William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 Democratic
Convention (2008), and Sectionalism and American Political
Development,1880–1980(1984).
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Published online by Cambridge University Press
The Founding of Modern States
RICHARD FRANKLIN BENSEL
CornellUniversity
Published online by Cambridge University Press
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©RichardFranklinBensel2022
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title:Thefoundingofmodernstates/RichardFranklinBensel.
description:Cambridge;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,2022.|Includes
bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
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subjects:lcsh:State,The–Casestudies.|Constitutionalhistory.|Dictatorship.|Worldpolitics.|
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Contents
Listof Tables page ix
Listof Boxes xi
Preface xiii
1 Introduction 1
part i the founding of democratic states 15
2 “TheRightsof Englishmen” and the EnglishConstitution 23
3 TheWillof the People and the American Founding 84
SectionI: FromtheRightsofEnglishmentotheDeclaration
ofIndependence 84
SectionII: FromtheDeclarationofIndependencetotheConstitution 146
4 TheDeclaration of the Rights of Man and of theCitizen:
TheFrench Revolution 199
SectionI: FromtheEstates-GeneraltotheExecutionoftheKing 199
SectionII: FromtheFalloftheGirondinstoNapoleon 263
part ii the founding of non-democratic states 329
5 TheDictatorshipof the Proletariat: The Russian Revolution 335
6 Blood and Soil:The Foundingof the ThirdReich 359
7 Islamic Theocracy:TheIranian Revolution 420
8 Conclusion 474
Index 493
vii
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Tables
4.1 Themonarchy,the nation, and thepeopleas competing sources
ofpolitical legitimacy page205
4.2 Thenames of thevarious manifestations of the
national legislature 221
4.3 Thefates of prominent revolutionariesbetween May 5,1789
and November 10,1799 290
4.4 Popular protest andviolence in Paris and Versailles during
therevolution 310
5.1 Leading party organizations during the Russian Revolution:
theirsocialbaseandattitudetowardthefoundingofanewstate 340
5.2 Party strength in theAll-Russian Congress ofSoviets and
Constituent Assembly 348
5.3 Legislative assembliesattending the foundingof the Soviet state 356
6.1 Characteristics of themajor political parties inthe
Weimar Republic 370
6.2 Composition of governments and cabinets under theWeimar
Republic (1923–33) 373
6.3 Percentage ofthe vote cast forthe major political partiesin
Reichstag elections (1924–33) 388
6.4 Socioeconomic class and supportfor the Nazi Party 390
7.1 Characteristics of thefounding ofthe Soviet Union,the Islamic
Republic of Iran, and the Third Reich 466
7.2 Theconstituting eventin the founding of the Soviet Union,
theIslamic Republic, and the ThirdReich 472
8.1 Comparison of the sixfoundings 476
ix
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