State Power and Social Forces: Domination and Transformation in the Third World

Description

This is a collection of scholarly essays on state, society and politics in the Third World, with cases drawn from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. The introductory chapter outlines the theoretical approach of the contributors and the concluding chapter summarizes the importance of their studies and the contribution of the volume to general theory in comparative politics. The book is relevant to the growing state theory literature in the social sciences and it puts forward a state-in-society approach to the study of political development.

"For anyone interested in knowing where the comparative theory of the state might be heading at the present time, this volume provides some excellent signposts. The case studies are particularly rewarding and enlightening for the many excellent insights and reflections they contain on the cases addressed...represents the best work published in the field to date." Robert H. Jackson, American Political Science Review "...fascinating and innovative volume...It is a fine achievement, and as sure to provoke many to rethink their own research as it is to challenge others to probe and puzzle over the possibilities or potential pitfalls of its approach." Dorothy J. Solinger, Journal of Politics "...a fresh, readable volume that is essential reading for anyone interested in civil society and the state in developing countries. The nine chapters that make the body of the book are carefully, but imaginatively, crafted and thoroughly grounded in specific historical knowledge of the cases. Their collective range is as impressive as their individual quality and they are nicely 'bookended' with introductory and concluding essays by the editors...[T]his volume opens up new debates in the process of superseding older ones, which is exactly what a good collection should do. Students of state-society relations are indebted to the authors and the editors for a series of crisp arguments that are theoretically provocative precisely because they are so nicely grounded in particular cases. They have pushed forward immeasurably our understanding of how states and societies interact." Peter Evans, Studies in Comparative International Development "In this seminal book, scholars working in the Weberian tradition of political sociology suggest a more balanced state-in-society perspective to replace the old state-versus-society framework that rests on a view of power as a zero-sum conflict between state and society." Xu Wang, Comparative Politics