Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T11:11:58.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Toward a Theory of State Intervention

The Nationalization of the British Telegraphs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Ira J. Cohen
Ira J. Cohen*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin —Madison
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

State intervention into the ownership, financing, and regulation of various industries and sectors of the capitalist economy is a phenomenon as old as capitalism itself. In the last 15 years this topic has become a focal point of vigorous interest among social scientists. Given the manifest problems to be found within current political-economic relationships, it is not surprising that a great deal of this attention has been focused on the contemporary scene. Nevertheless, a small number of works have undertaken the explanation of the historical development of state intervention. Unfortunately, the historian in search of explanatory guidance is confronted here with a series of less than comprehensive analyses which move at descriptive and explanatory cross-purposes. The first tasks of the social scientist or historian who wishes to address the development of state intervention therefore must be to classify and clarify the accounts which have been proposed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , Spring 1980 , pp. 155 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1980 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

fn00

Author's Note: Research for this article was facilitated by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health Manpower Training Program —Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin —Madison. I am indebted to J. Rogers Hollingsworth, Joseph W. Elder, Reggie Feiner Cohen, and an anonymous referee for assistance they extended in the production of this work. An earlier version of this work was presented at the session sponsored by the Network on Social Theory and Social Policy at the meetings of the Social Science History Association in October 1977, and another version was presented at a seminar sponsored jointly by the Department of History and Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin —Madison. The comments in both cases have been most useful to the further development of this work.

References

Alford, R. (1975) “Paradigms of relations between state and society,” pp. 145–160 in Lindberg, L. et al. (eds.), Stress and Contradiction in Modern Capitalism. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Bachrach, P. and Baratz, M. S. (1963) “Decisions and non-decisions: an analytical framework.” Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev. 947–952.Google Scholar
Beetham, D. (1974) Max Weber and the Theory of Modern Politics. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Bell, D. (1975) The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bell, D. (1974) The Coming of Post Industrial Society. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Benson, L. (1955) Merchants, Farmers, and Railroads. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
“The Bill for Authorising the Purchase of the Telegraphs by the State” (1868) Economist 26 (April 11): 412–413.Google Scholar
Brady, R. (1943) Business as a System at Power. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Briggs, A. (1965) The Making of Modern England. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Church, R. (1975) The Great Victorian Boom: 1850-1873. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Clapham, J. H. (1963) An Economic History of Modern Britain: Free Trade and Steel 1850-1886. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, R. and Lindblom, C. (1976) Politics, Economics and Welfare: Planning and Politico-Economic Systems Resolved into Basic Processes. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Edinburgh Evening Courant (12 January 1868).Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. (1969) The Political Systems of Empires: The Rise and Fall of the Historical Bureaucratic Societies. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Esping-Anderson, G., Friedland, R., and Wright, E. (1976) “Modes of class struggle and the capitalist state.” Working Papers on the Kapitalistate 4-5 (Summer): 186–220.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1973) The Class Structure of Advanced Societies. New York: Barnes and Noble.Google Scholar
Gold, D., Lo, C., and Wright, E. (1975) “Recent developments in Marxist theories of the capitalist state.” Monthly Review 27: 5 and 6 (October and November): 29–43; 36-51.Google Scholar
Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers (1867-1868) 41 “Copy of further correspondence between the Treasury and the Postmaster-General relating to the Electric Telegraph Bill. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers (1867-1868) 11 “Report from the Select Committee on the Electric Telegraph Bill.” London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers (1867) 41 “A report to the Postmaster-General upon certain proposals which have been made for transferring to the Post Office the control and management of the electric telegraphs throughout the United Kingdom.” London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Great Britain, Public Bills. 18-19 Vict. C. 23. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Great Britain, Public Bills 26-27 Vict. C. 121. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Great Britain, Public Bills 31-32 Vict. C. 110. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Great Britain, Public Bills 31-32 Vict. C. 110. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Great Britain, Public Bills 32-33 Vict. C. 73. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Grimston, R. (1868) Government and the Telegraphs: the Case of the EITC against the government bill. London: Privately published.Google Scholar
Hemmeon, J. C. (1907) History of the British Post Office. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, E. (1968) Industry and Empire. Baltimore: Penguin.Google Scholar
Kieve, J. (1973) The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History. London: David and Charles.Google Scholar
King, A. (1973a) “Ideas, institutions and the policies of government: a comparative analysis: parts I and II.” British J. of Pol. Sci. 33: 291–313.Google Scholar
King, A. (1973b) “Ideas, institutions and the policies of government: a comparative analysis: part II.” British J. of Pol. Sci. 3: 409–423.Google Scholar
Kolko, G. (1967) The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900-1916. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.Google Scholar
Kolko, G. (1965) Railroads and Regulation 1877-1916. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. (1970) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: Univ of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakatos, I. (1970) “Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes,” pp. 91–196 in Lakatos, I. and Musgrave, A. (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. (1977) “Social Theory and the progressive era.” Theory and Society 4: 159–210.Google Scholar
Manchester Guardian (10 October 1865, 17 November 1865, 22 August 1867).Google Scholar
Marx, K. (1973) Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (trans, by Nicolaus, M.). New York: Vintage. (Originally published in 1858)Google Scholar
Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1955) The Communist Manifesto (trans, by Moore, S.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (Originally published in 1848)Google Scholar
Menshikov, S. (1969) Millionaires and Managers. Moscow: Progress Publishers.Google Scholar
Merelman, R. (1968) “On the neo-elitist critique of community power.” Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev. 62: 451–460.Google Scholar
Milliband, R. (1969) The State in Capitalist Society. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Mills, C. W. (1962) The Marxists. New York: Dell.Google Scholar
Mollenkopf, J. (1975) “Theories of the state and power structure research.” Insurgent Sociologist 5: 245–264.Google Scholar
Nettl, P. (1968) “The state as a conceptual variable.” World Politics 20: 559–592.Google Scholar
Neumann, F. (1942) Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism: 1933-1944. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Offe, C. (1975) “The theory of the capitalistate and the problem of policy formation,” pp. 125–142 in Lindberg, L. et al. (eds.), Stress and Contradiction in Modern Capitalism. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Offe, C. (1974) “Structural problems of the capitalistate.” German Pol. Studies: 32–57.Google Scholar
Offe, C. (1972a) “Political authority and class structures—an analysis of late capitalist societies.” Int. J. of Sociology 2 (Spring): 73–106.Google Scholar
Offe, C. (1972b) “Advanced capitalism and the welfare state.” Politics and Society 2: 479–488.Google Scholar
Offe, C. (1973a) “The abolition of market control and the problem of legitimacy: I.“ Working Papers on the Kapitalistate 1: 109–116.Google Scholar
Offe, C. (1973b) “The abolition of market control and the problem of legitimacy: II.“ Working Papers on the Kapitalistate 2: 73–83.Google Scholar
Offe, C. and Ronge, V. (1979) “Theses on the theory of the state,” pp. 345–356 in Freiberg, J. W. (ed.), Critical Sociology: European Perspectives. New York: Irvington.Google Scholar
Perlo, V. (1957) The Empires of High Finance. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
“The Post Office and the Telegraphs” (1865) The Times, December 10, p. 9.Google Scholar
Poulantzas, N. (1975) Classes in Contemporary Capitalism (trans, by Feshbach, D.). London: New Left Books. (Originally published in 1974)Google Scholar
Poulantzas, N. (1973) Political Power and Social Classes (trans, ed. O'Hagen, T.). London: New Left Books, Sheed and Wards. (Originally published 1968)Google Scholar
The Quarterly Review 122 (April, 1867).Google Scholar
Sardei-Biermann, S., Christiansen, J., and Dohse, K. (1973) “Class domination and the political system: a critical interpretation of recent contributions by Claus Offe.” Working Papers on the Kapitalistate 2: 60–73.Google Scholar
The Saturday Review (13 June 1868).Google Scholar
Schmitter, P. (1974) “Still the century of corporatism?’ Rev. of Politics: 85–131.Google Scholar
Skocpol, T. (1979) “State and revolution: old regimes and revolutionary crises.“ Theory and Society 7: 7–96.Google Scholar
Spencer, M. (1979) “Marx on the state.” Theory and Society 7: 167–196.Google Scholar
Sweezy, P. (1944) The Theory of Capitalist Development. New York: Modern Reader Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, A. (1972) Laissez-faire and State Intervention in Nineteenth-Century Britain. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. [ed.] (1975) The Formation of National States in Western Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Tocqueville, A. (1945) Democracy in America, Vol. 2 (trans, by Reeves, H.) in Bradley, P. (ed.), New York: Vintage. (Originally published in 1835)Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1968) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretative Sociology in Roth, G. and Wittich, C. (eds.), New York: Bedminster Press. (Originally published in 1922)Google Scholar
Williams, R. (1962) Communications. Hammondsworth, England: Penguin.Google Scholar
Williams, R. (1961) The Long Revolution. Hammondsworth, England: Penguin.Google Scholar
Wolfe, A. (1974) “New directions in the Marxist theory of politics.” Politics and Society 4: 131–160.Google Scholar
Wolfinger, R. (1971) “Non-decisions and the study of local politics.” Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev. 65: 1063–1080.Google Scholar