Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Economic and ideological power relations
- 3 A theory of the modern state
- 4 The Industrial Revolution and old regime liberalism in Britain, 1760–1880
- 5 The American Revolution and the institutionalization of confederal capitalist liberalism
- 6 The French Revolution and the bourgeois nation
- 7 Conclusion to Chapters 4–6: The emergence of classes and nations
- 8 Geopolitics and international capitalism
- 9 Struggle over Germany: I. Prussia and authoritarian national capitalism
- 10 Struggle over Germany: II. Austria and confederal representation
- 11 The rise of the modern state: I. Quantitative data
- 12 The rise of the modern state: II. The autonomy of military power
- 13 The rise of the modern state: III. Bureaucratization
- 14 The rise of the modern state: IV. The expansion of civilian scope
- 15 The resistible rise of the British working class, 1815–1880
- 16 The middle-class nation
- 17 Class struggle in the Second Industrial Revolution, 1880–1914: I. Great Britain
- 18 Class struggle in the Second Industrial Revolution, 1880–1914: II. Comparative analysis of working-class movements
- 19 Class struggle in the Second Industrial Revolution, 1880–1914: III. The peasantry
- 20 Theoretical conclusions: Classes, states, nations, and the sources of social power
- 21 Empirical culmination – over the top: Geopolitics, class struggle, and World War I
- Appendix: Additional tables on state finances and state employment
- Index
11 - The rise of the modern state: I. Quantitative data
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Economic and ideological power relations
- 3 A theory of the modern state
- 4 The Industrial Revolution and old regime liberalism in Britain, 1760–1880
- 5 The American Revolution and the institutionalization of confederal capitalist liberalism
- 6 The French Revolution and the bourgeois nation
- 7 Conclusion to Chapters 4–6: The emergence of classes and nations
- 8 Geopolitics and international capitalism
- 9 Struggle over Germany: I. Prussia and authoritarian national capitalism
- 10 Struggle over Germany: II. Austria and confederal representation
- 11 The rise of the modern state: I. Quantitative data
- 12 The rise of the modern state: II. The autonomy of military power
- 13 The rise of the modern state: III. Bureaucratization
- 14 The rise of the modern state: IV. The expansion of civilian scope
- 15 The resistible rise of the British working class, 1815–1880
- 16 The middle-class nation
- 17 Class struggle in the Second Industrial Revolution, 1880–1914: I. Great Britain
- 18 Class struggle in the Second Industrial Revolution, 1880–1914: II. Comparative analysis of working-class movements
- 19 Class struggle in the Second Industrial Revolution, 1880–1914: III. The peasantry
- 20 Theoretical conclusions: Classes, states, nations, and the sources of social power
- 21 Empirical culmination – over the top: Geopolitics, class struggle, and World War I
- Appendix: Additional tables on state finances and state employment
- Index
Summary
The rise of the modern state is a commonplace of sociological and historical writing, yet it remains poorly analyzed. What is meant by state modernization encompasses four processes of growth: in state size, in the scope of its functions, in administrative bureaucratization, and in political representation. The struggle for representation is usually separated from the three administrative processes, which are assumed to constitute a single, overall modernizing process occurring more or less continuously over a long period of time (e.g., Beer 1973: 54–70; Eckstein 1982). In 1863, Adolf Wagner formulated his “law” of the ever growing expansion of the modern state, and this still influences statisticians contemplating ever larger sums in state budgets (e.g., Andic and Veverka 1963–4). Modern state development is described as “onward-and-upward” evolution.
Political scientists and economists have concentrated on the readily available financial statistics of the twentieth century. They explain growth in functional and pluralist terms. Higgs (1987) distinguishes four variants of their theories: modernization theory (states grew to coordinate greater social complexity and differentiation), public goods theory centered on national defense (public goods are provided by the state because they are in no one's private interest to pay for, yet are in the general interest, and their enjoyment by one consumer does not diminish their availability for others), welfare state theory (in complex societies the market undermines private charity and the state steps in), and political redistribution theory (the franchise enables the many to take from the few).
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- Information
- The Sources of Social Power , pp. 358 - 401Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993