Product Description
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.
Average Customer Review:
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
indispensable state theory, 2003-08-28
I read this book in a class on the formation of modern state. After reading Poggi and Tilly among other texts this one was read and it was amazing. Spruyt explains state formation in Western Europe by taking into account sociology, economy and ideologies. Therefore his theory accounts for more factors than especially Tilly (who can be very persuasive at a first glance but not so much when compared to others) and for more diversity in the paths chosen by the actors. These three writers Tilly, Poggi and Spruyt must be read together to get a sound idea on this phenomenon. Of course there is much more but how deep you will go depends on your curiosity.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Why the sovereign state won the evolutionary contest., 2002-09-03
Why do we live in sovereign states now? In the high Middle Ages, sovereign states were certainly not the only form of political organization in Western Europe. Why did sovereign states first come to dominate Europe and then spread their model around the globe?The author argues that there was nothing deterministic about the victory of the sovereign state. It was not destined to be the most successful form of government and it had competitors. The city leagues, particularly the Hansa, and the city-state, most notably in Italy, were all viable alternatives to the sovereign state up to the high Middle Ages.
By comparing the development of Capetian France, the Hanseatic League, and the Italian city-states, the author shows what political actors made which alliances with one another to the benefit or detriment of their particular political models.
A particularly fascinating book to understand how we got to the dominance of the sovereign state and excellent background for imagining a post-sovereign state world.