Bringing the State Back In

Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Theda Skocpol

Cambridge University Press, Sep 13, 1985 - Social Science - 390 pages

Until recently, dominant theoretical paradigms in the comparative social sciences did not highlight states as organizational structures or as potentially autonomous actors. Indeed, the term 'state' was rarely used. Current work, however, increasingly views the state as an agent which, although influenced by the society that surrounds it, also shapes social and political processes. The contributors to this volume, which includes some of the best recent interdisciplinary scholarship on states in relation to social structures, make use of theoretically engaged comparative and historical investigations to provide improved conceptualizations of states and how they operate. Each of the book's major parts presents a related set of analytical issues about modern states, which are explored in the context of a wide range of times and places, both contemporary and historical, and in developing and advanced-industrial nations. The first part examines state strategies in newly developing countries. The second part analyzes war making and state making in early modern Europe, and discusses states in relation to the post-World War II international economy. The third part pursues new insights into how states influence political cleavages and collective action. In the final chapter, the editors bring together the questions raised by the contributors and suggest tentative conclusions that emerge from an overview of all the articles. As a programmatic work that proposes new directions for the analysis of modern states, the volume will appeal to a wide range of teachers and students of political science, political economy, sociology, history, and anthropology.

What people are saying

Review: Bringing the State Back in

User Review - Goodreads

I have only read the section by Charles Tilly titled "War Making and State Making as Organized Crime". Faaaaantastic read.

Review: Bringing the State Back in

User Review  - Felix - Goodreads

Its about the role of strongmen or actors in state making

Contents

• III: 3
• IV: 39
• V: 44
• VI: 78
• VII: 107
• VIII: 165
• IX: 169
• X: 192
• XI: 227
• XII: 253
• XIII: 257
• XIV: 285
• XV: 317
• XVI: 345
• XVII: 347
• XVIII: 367
• XIX: 370

About the author

Evans makes history and geography books and articles for teachers and children

Dietrich Rueschemeyer is professor emeritus of sociology at Brown University and a research professor at Brown's Watson Institute for International Studies. He is the author of "Power and the Division of Labor" and the coeditor of "Bringing the State Back In," among many other books.

Theda Skocpol is professor of government and sociology at Harvard University and the author of Boomerang: Health Care Reform and the Turn Against Government.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Bringing the State Back In; Social science research council
• Editors: Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Theda Skocpol
• Photographs by: Dietrich Rueschemeyer
• Contributors: Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Theda Skocpol, Social Science Research Council (U.S.). Committee on States and Social Structures, Joint Committee on Latin American Studies, Joint Committee on Western Europe
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1985
• ISBN: 0521313139, 9780521313131
• Length: 390 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / General; Political Science / Public Policy / Social Services & Welfare; Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural; Social Science / General