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74 results

Page 1 of 4

  • Weak, Despotic, or Inclusive? How State Type Emerges from State versus Civil Society Competition

  • DARON ACEMOGLU, JAMES A. ROBINSON
  • Journal:
    American Political Science Review / Volume 117 / Issue 2 / May 2023
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    15 August 2022, pp. 407-420
    Print publication:
    May 2023

  • We develop a theory of the accumulation of state capacity as the outcome of a political competition between elites and (civil) society. State capacity is accumulated by elites, and it is productive as well as useful in controlling society. However, society can fight back and accumulate its own capacity, facilitating collective action. The theory leads to three distinct equilibria depending on initial conditions. One type, a weak state, emerges when society is strong relative to the elite. Another, a despotic state, originates where the elite is initially relatively powerful. A third type, an inclusive state, emerges when the elite and society are more evenly matched. The theory has several important implications; first, variation in state capacity does not require large structural differences; second, inclusive states have the highest levels of state capacity in the long run; third, the effects of shocks or external threats like wars are conditional on the balance of power between elites and society.

  • A Discussion of Josiah Ober’s The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece

  • Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson, Barry R. Weingast
  • Journal:
    Perspectives on Politics / Volume 14 / Issue 4 / December 2016
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    28 December 2016, p. 1146
    Print publication:
    December 2016

  • Ancient Greece has long exercised a powerful hold on the imagination of modern political science. But until fairly recently, this influence has largely been philosophical, related to the origins of many theoretical concepts—including the concept of politics itself—in the ancient world. In The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, Josiah Ober offers a synoptic and ambitious social theoretical account of the ancient Greek world, the sources of its power, the causes of its decline, and the lessons that can be drawn from this story for contemporary social and political science. We have thus invited a range of political scientists to comment on Ober’s account of classical Greece and its relevance to contemporary political inquiry.

Page 1 of 4