> ============
> Isn't every state's existence due in one way or another to
somebody's
> imperialism?
>
> Ian
================
It would seem that by challenging the BWI web of politico-economic history we are struggling to break the linkages between money and empire; a necessary first step in the long and difficult creation of the alternative to TINA. In that sense, the upcoming protests may be a welcome prelude to the ability of the Euro and the Yen to humble the $, and with China about to enter the WTO, the possibility of another currency vying for recognition on/in the world market makes for very interesting times.....
TINA and the iron cage is a myth to hide the plasticity and malleability of social relations.
< http://pup.princeton.edu/TOCs/c5611.html > 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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
List of Maps and Tables
Preface
Introduction 3 Pt. I Contingency, Choice, and Constraint 9 Ch. 1 Structural Change in International Relations 11 Ch. 2 Organizational Variation and Selection in the International System 22 Ch. 3 Modes of Nonterritorial Organization: Feudalism, the Church, and the Holy Roman Empire 34 Pt. II The Emergence of New Modes of Organization 59 Ch. 4 The Economic Renaissance of the Late Middle Ages 61 Ch. 5 The Rise of the Sovereign, Territorial State in Capetian France 77 Ch. 6 The Fragmentation of the German Empire and the Rise of the Hanseatic League 109 Ch. 7 The Development of the Italian City-states 130 Pt. III Competition, Mutual Empowerment, and Choice: The Advantages of Sovereign Territoriality 151 Ch. 8 The Victory of the Sovereign State 153 Pt. IV Conclusion 181 Ch. 9 Character, Tempo, and Prospects for Change in the International System 183
Notes 195
Bibliography 265
Index 285