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The Civil War pension system was the most comprehensive social policy in the nineteenth-century United States, and one of the most ambitious in the industrializing world. By the time the Civil War closed in April 1865, the U.S. Army had mustered more than two million men. Nearly four hundred thousand of them perished, and those who survived raised new questions about the state’s obligations to its veterans. During the following half century, the federal government developed an enormous system of military benefits for these men and their families, one that eventually developed into a general disability and old-age pension programme of proportions unprecedented in the nation’s history. Between 1880 and 1910, the federal government devoted more than a quarter of its entire expenditure to this enormous military benefits system; by 1917, the United States had spent more than five billion dollars in the form of pensions to veterans and the survivors of the war dead. Scholars have come to see this massive system of military benefits as a counterpoint to conventional arguments about the underdevelopment of the American welfare state. The United States, Theda Skocpol has argued, was not the welfare state laggard that scholars once assumed; rather, it was a “precocious social spending state.” This thesis advances a new interpretation. The Civil War pension system, it shows, was less impressive in practice than it seems in prospect, less the precursor to an incipient welfare state than the product of an ad hoc and improvisational pattern of late-nineteenth-century politics. By highlighting the ideological and political impediments to the development of the pension system, by illuminating the implementation of pension policy and its deeply embedded administrative pathologies, and by exploring the persistence of pension fraud – both real and imagined – as a major political issue, this thesis shows that the pension system was less the symbol of an ambitious and effective state than a symptom of its halting and uneven development. The failure of major reform proposals, the participation of private interests in public policy, and the recurrent conflict between local and national forms of authority, it shows, contributed to the declining legitimacy of the pension system over the course of the late nineteenth century. The Civil War pension system was, in short, less the symbol of an ambitious and assertive national state than a symptom of its peculiar pattern of political development.

Argentina is now the world’s third largest producer of transgenic crops. They grow on more than half the cultivated area of the country. Transgenic soy is not only the key crop for the Argentine economy but also for politics and society. The Argentine state and also multinational seed corporations seek to control the soy sector and appropriate rents from it, while the export-oriented soy farmers resist these attempts. To expand studies on environmental conflicts from the social to the ecological dimensions, I analyse the role of the materiality of transgenic soy in the struggles around export taxes and royalties on transgenic seeds, based on the concepts of political crops and resistance or escape crops derived from the anthropology of the state. Furthermore, I incorporate transgenic materiality into the analysis of the economic and physical materiality of political crops and resistance crops. In the case study of Argentina, I demonstrate that the materiality of transgenic soy not only enables control by the state – and in parallel by seed corporations – but that it also enables farmer resistance. Thus, transgenic soy is not only key to state building but inherently comes with the risk to the state of a powerful farmer resistance. Building on the empirical analysis, I connect the concepts of political crops and resistance crops, which have been developed for different types of plants. In the case of Argentina, there were three reasons why the state failed to control transgenic soy: 1) difficulties within the institutional setting of the state to grasp the materiality of soy; 2) the parallel governance structure of the seed corporations as developers of transgenic soy; and 3) the everyday and organised resistance of the soy farmers. For the analysis, I use qualitative and quantitative data collected during my research on transgenic agriculture in Argentina since 2009. The data are mainly analysed by applying qualitative content analysis. My own calculations based on descriptive statistics support parts of the qualitative analysis.

Theological libraries like Bridwell continue to benefit from both natural resources and the environment, while needing to adapt to the harshness of what nature itself brings. A holistic vision, distilled in the particular climates, topographies, and physical geographies of Texas, for example, reflects both the concerns and hopes about the general stewardship and sustainability of natural resources in our work. Reflecting on historical legacies will benefit our attempts to envision a better future and healthier planet. In the last few years, the focus on environmental sustainability has grown along with more critical roles in renewable energy. As theological institutions, then, it will become more pressing to evaluate both questions about what our ties are to the past, and what visions there are for the future. This paper will examine the ambiguities of environmental legacies while discussing what roles theological schools and libraries have in strategizing for coming generations.

Recognizing that militant, non-state groups utilize social media and online platforms to reach members, sympathizers, and potential recruits, state agencies and social media corporations now increa...

The emergence in recent years of a large number of institutional concepts in the world of Chinese political science indicates that Chinese political science is experiencing an "internal shift" that is different from the complete Westernization of the past. Chinese political scientists are seeking theoretical explanations for China's political development based on China's internal context and are looking to provide intellectual arguments for China's modern state building. In this paper, it is proposed that the core of this internal shift of Chinese political science is the consciousness of "China" as an analytical concept, and that China is not only an object of description, but also an analytical perspective for explaining "what is China". Such a view is different from that held by the European and American left and pure traditional researchers or reactionists. On the one hand, this paradigm provides more universal political knowledge in the sense of comparative political science; on the other hand, it can advance Chinese political research by drawing a clearer and more accurate knowledge map of Chinese politics. The emergence of institutional concepts in Chinese political science implies that Chinese political science as a discipline is increasingly moving from the "form" of discipline establishment to the "content" of "what is China". This signifies a real new beginning.

The European Union’s institutional development is highly imbalanced. It has established robust legal authority and institutions, but it remains weak or impotent in terms of its centralization of fiscal, administrative, and coercive capacity. We argue that situating the EU in terms of the history of state-building allows us to better understand the outcomes of EU governance. Historically, political projects centralizing power have been most complete when both market and security pressures are present to generate state formation. With the EU, market forces have had a far greater influence than immediate military threats. We offer a preliminary demonstration of the promise of this approach by applying it to two empirical examples, the euro and the Schengen area. Our analysis suggests that the EU does not need to be a Weberian state, nor be destined to become one, for the state-building perspective to shed new light on its processes of political development.

After the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal, the response was as overwhelming as the magnitude of the disaster itself. Tensions between the humanitarian imperative and the postconflict statebuilding agenda soon became evident. Many actors opened different windows for responding by creatively complying to support the state's approach, whereas others bypassed the official channels completely. In post-conflict settings such as Nepal, the situation is especially complicated because of the contradiction between policies underscoring the importance of the state in the response and the reality of the fragile state, which often creates a large role for aid actors. In Nepal, the post-conflict political landscape shaped the contours of the response, as well as how actors decided to operate within them. Based on empirical findings from four months of research, this article contributes to a better understanding of the intricacies of the post-disaster and post-conflict nexus in the context of a state-led response. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This study adopts a constructivist approach to reveal the function of the dispositive of terrorism in the UN Security Council. While some CTS studies focus on genealogies of terrorism at the UN bas...

The subject of research is social relations concerning the constitutional transformation of the State Council of the Russian Federation into the format of a constitutional state body, it’s tasks and functions in the unified system of public power. The aim of the research is to confirm or disprove hypothesis that the Russian State Council is a constitutional state body that ensures the coordinated functioning and interaction of authorities in the unified system of public power.The methodological basis of the research includes historical, comparative legal, formal legal methods, legal modeling and forecasting. The research is based on existing and historical legal acts, materials of judicial practice, as well as on the works of leading national lawyers.The main results, scope of application. The authors substantiate concept of the constitutional status of the Russian State Council as a completely new constitutional state body, formed on the basis of modern national principles of state building, taking into account the existing constitutional practice. Main task of the State Council is exercising the constitutional powers of the Russian President to ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of public authorities, the definition of the main directions of national and foreign policy of the state. The article provides a critical analysis of the goals, tasks, functions of the Russian State Council, the decisions it makes, as a result of which a number of conflicts in the regulation of its constitutional-legal status are revealed. Some proposals to improve legislation and law enforcement practice aimed at solving of the discovered contradictions are made. Current constitutional of the State Council is a result of the constitutional amendments of 2020 in the Russian Constitution and innovations in the Federal Law on the State Council of the Russian Federation. The authors substantiate the idea that the consolidation of a new constitutional position of the State Council can be considered as a process of forming a completely new state body, designed to ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of bodies included in the unified public system. A comparative legal analysis of the constitutional legislation on State Councils in foreign countries showed that despite the same name the status and functions of these state institutions differ greatly in different countries, therefore any comparative study of them will be unreliable.Conclusions. The Russian State Council has competence, functions of a state power character, take decisions signed by the President of the Russian Federation and therefore have a generally binding character. So it has the characteristics of a public authority. The Russian State Council is a new constitutional and legal structure - a constitutional state body created in order to implement the constitutional powers of the Russian President to ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of other bodies (that are part of the unified system of public authority) and to determine the main directions of domestic and foreign policy of the state.

This research tackles essential elements of Syrian state-building processes through a structural analysis incorporating several theories and concepts including but not limited to colonialism, nationalism, military interventions, institutional development, minority rule, and eventually neocolonialism. The article reveals how minority rule and different implications of military interventions shaped today’s Syria, as well as addresses some of the current issues such as the absence of domestic political consolidation. The primary aim of this research is to contextualize the role of France—as a former colonizer, within the state-building process of Syria by examining different phases of Syria’s historical past. An examination of Syria’s political developments proved that having inherited a colonial past, the current state of Syria has also inherited an unavoidable legacy of political instability from its colonial past. Keywords: Syria, Middle East, State-Building, Colonialism, Military Interventions.

South Sudan's tragic history of independent statehood raises important questions about the future of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). UNMISS cannot bring peace to the country on ...

The collapse of the US-aligned Afghan government and the seizure of Kabul by the Taliban in 2021 as the United States withdrew its forces was ultimately caused by a change in US government policy i...

This paper introduces the Special Issue that grew out of a research project at the African Leadership Centre, which was supported by the Canadian International Centre for Development Research (IDRC...

This paper does not directly engage the state-formation, political settlement and state-building debates in Africa but it foregrounds the notion of conversation as the lens through which to examine...

This paper examines the evolving state-building conversations in Ethiopia and the role of political settlement thereof in charting a pathway for durable peace and strong state. The paper argues tha...

The ever-increasing demands of war during the Renaissance caused rulers to continuously impose new taxes and exactions. One of the most unpopular exactions was billeting – the obligation to provide...

This paper describes three eras of state building and higher education in Canada. Higher education in ‘Old Canada’ before WWII was mostly a small collection of colleges that bore imprints of Americ...

The article examines the problems of legal science in the context of modern state-building processes in Ukraine through the prism of constitutional reform and ensuring the constitutional order. It is emphasised that one of the main causes of the socio-political crisis, economic unrest and social regress is imperfect legislation, which often does not meet the needs of Ukrainian society, European principles and international standards. On the other hand, it is obvious and historically confirmed that the adoption of a new Constitution or amendments to the current and improvement of legislation does not in itself mean a real law and order. For more than a quarter of a century, Ukraine has remained in a state of transition. It is noted that the assessment of the impact of constitutional legislation, which determines almost all reforms in the state, revealed the following priorities: the creation of favourable conditions for the formation of a new constitutional (state and social) system; determining the conditions for the formation of a new system of economic relations; consolidation of new principles of organisation and functioning of state and socio-political life; actual implementation of the provisions of the Basic Law; further constitutionalisation of all elements of the legal system; recognition of the authority of international law. Regarding the latter, it is stated that the legal ideas, norms and principles proclaimed in the Constitution of Ukraine, provisions on human and civil rights and freedoms must meet international standards, because by becoming a member of the Council of Europe, Ukraine has committed itself to implement European human rights standards, the supremacy of law and democracy. It is the amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine that should provide the foundation for democratic change and the construction of a European democracy that will allow building in Ukraine an independent European state, where every Ukrainian will feel dignified and protected. It was concluded that modern jurisprudence is characterised by a number of scientific methodological approaches, which allows a comprehensive approach to the study of law and legislation in different dimensions. This is objectively due to the constant complication of social relations, including international ones, and requires a deeper understanding of the content of this category and the prospects for its further development. This process will be effective only if it is carried out taking into account the specifics of law and, accordingly, the principles of its knowledge. There is also no doubt that only methodologically sound research of law will allow forming a holistic internally consistent theory of law, which can be applied in the theory of state and law, other areas of law, as well as in the course of state and legal development, including in Ukraine

Since the declaration of independence, Ukraine has been involved in a rapid pace of events, aimed at building statehood and understanding the direction of the political course. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand why, despite a series of revolutions, Russian aggression and numerous difficult steps to democratize the country through decentralization and territorial development, Ukraine has not yet formed a clear political course and ensured the stability of key state institutions, such as judicial, police and taxation systems. Such questions arise quite often and probably do not have an unambiguous answer. This article is devoted to those aspects of the Ukrainian mentality that have caused the current political situation in the state. The article reveals why, despite a series of revolutions, Russian aggression and a number of important steps to democratize countries through decentralization and territorial development, Ukraine does not form a clear political course and does not ensure the stability of key state institutions, such as the judicial, police and tax systems. The article utilizes the method of analysis, which is based on the comparison of historical events and their reflection in modern conditions. In addition to the aforementioned, the method of induction is introduced, which provides possibility of identifying a pattern in the presence of a limited amount of observations of recurring historical events. The article contains sections that consistently consider the historical facts, that have influenced the formation of the mentality of Ukraine, which has a significant impact on the formation of society and the choice of the leader, elected by the society. The article seeks to reveal the causes of certain political events in Ukraine from the influence of the Ukrainian mentality on them and to consider those aspects of it that hinder or help Ukrainians in the difficult process of state building. The purpose of the article is to determine the factors shaping the Ukrainian mentality that have an impact on the political processes that have been taking place for decades in Ukraine. The article does not criticize or accept the Ukrainian mentality, but on the contrary, reveals its historical stages of formation and influence on political processes in Ukraine in order to analyze, understand and predict them.

The scholarship about the Balkan Wars is a vast corpus that has expanded our knowledge of war experiences, violence, ethnic cleansing, state building, and has stressed the conflict as a point of ru...

According to paragraph 47 of the National Security Strategy of Ukraine dated 14.09.2020: “Ukraine will introduce a national system of resilience to ensure a high level of readiness of society and the state to respond to a wide range of threats…”. This task will involve taking comprehensive measures to develop resilience to both traditional threats (natural, technogenic, biological, environmental, social, military) and unprecedented, including hybrid threats. This circumstance determines the connection of the general problem of studying the phenomenon of “national stability” with the most important scientific and practical tasks of studying the problems of theory and practice of building Ukraine's national security system at the present stage of state building, and adapting the experience of EU and NATO national stability for the needs of the Ukrainian state. It is determined that the structure of project activities in the sphere of ensuring the national stability of Ukraine in a dynamic security environment contains five stages: - awareness and formulation of the practical problem situation in the sphere of ensuring national stability in a dynamic and aggressive security environment; - gathering information, as well as studying the experience gained in the transformation of reality, development and implementation in public administration practice of ensuring the national sustainability of similar projects; - substantiation of possibility and expediency of the project, formulation of its plan and development of the concept; - formation of the task of designing a system for ensuring national stability and determining the requirements for the project; - social construction of the system of national stability, as the final stage of project activities, which involves the implementation of the project in public administration practice in accordance with the requirements for the tasks of the national security system.

This essay reviews Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity by Walter Scheidel. It examines the argument that Europe’s persistent fragmentation following the collapse of the Roman Empire is responsible for the origins of the modern world. First, I consider Scheidel’s argument that the rise of Rome at the end of the first millennium BCE was relatively overdetermined, but that once Rome fell, it was highly unlikely for any subsequent empire to dominate Europe. Second, I examine the institutional consequences of this divergence in state building. Finally, I reflect on the role of counterfactuals in history. (JEL Y80)

This article discusses the international dimension of the secessionist State of Katanga (1960–1963). It argues in favour of a reassessment of the agency of Katangese political elites. In this regar...

Contains fulltext : 247676.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) This article draws on empirical data collected in Yei River County, South Sudan, to contribute to debates on hybrid governance in Africa. Current literature offers a limited understanding of the practical workings of hybridity, and particularly of whether and under what circumstances hybridity may meet the interests and solve the problems of citizens. This article discusses how subsequent historical attempts at state-building have left a complex and layered governance system and analyses how this system functions on the ground in Yei River County, focusing on the land and justice sectors. The empirical analysis reveals institutional development to be ongoing and to be shaped through continuous negotiations among local stakeholders. Whilst in the land sector, this process produced power imbalances and violence, in the justice sector, unexpected institutional cooperation improved access to justice for local citizens. Important factors in determining these institutional outcomes have been what we have termed the two P’s: pragmatism and power. 25 mei 2021 20 p.

What is the impact of smuggling on political ordering and stability in fragile states? We investigate how transnational drug smuggling networks affect protection and extraction dynamics, and drive ...

Rulers ascending to the throne differ substantially in their need for legitimization. This paper asks: will a usurper who took power by unlawful means build legitimacy through war? Using warfare data from historical China (750 BCE-1911), we show that usurpers initiated 40.2% more wars than did hereditary rulers against nomadic neighbors. Usurpers waged and won more wars early in their reign and converged to rulers’ average warring frequencies later. To address the endogeneity concern, we use rulers’ birth orders as an instrument for usurper identity. We show that usurpers also outperformed hereditary rulers in other peaceful legitimization strategies such as amnesties and political marriages, which, together with war increased usurpers’ survival odds. However, usurpers were not as proactive in abolishing the vassals, from which many originated.

Ethnic and land conflicts have recently gained significance in peace and conflict resolution. It is imperative to understand both endogenous and exogenous factors and their relations towards the in...

Existing work on state building focuses on the creation of modern bureaucracies and institutions for education and taxation but generally neglects to point to communal property regimes as tools of statecraft. Political science scholars who focus on ethnic communal lands in the Americas emphasize the rise of formal multicultural institutions, including Indigenous land rights, but are skeptical about governments’ willingness to title large extensions of land to Indigenous or other ethnic groups because of opposing economic interests. Focusing on the titling of 12 percent of Honduras’s territory between 2012 and 2016, this article uses semi-structured elite interviews, land titling data, field notes from three months in rural and urban sites in Honduras, and drug-trafficking reports to examine the motivation of officials in the central government. Evidence suggests that the central government views and uses ethnic land titling as a strategy to reclaim territorial dominance in contested locations that lack state presence. Resumen Los analisis sobre la creacion del estado moderno se enfocan en el diseno de burocracias e instituciones modernas para la educacion y la recaudacion de impuestos pero generalmente omiten la propiedad comunal como herramienta para gobernar. Los analistas que estudian la propiedad comunal de pueblos etnicos en las Americas enfatizan la difusion del multiculturalismo mediante instituciones legales, incluyendo el derecho a la tierra de pueblos indigenas, pero dudan que el gobierno quiera titular grandes extensiones de tierras a dichos pueblos por oposiciones de intereses economicos. Este articulo usa entrevistas con la elite politica de Honduras, datos cuantitativos sobre la titulacion de tierra comunal, notas detalladas de tres meses de trabajo de campo en lugares urbanos y rurales de Honduras e informes sobre el narcotrafico para examinar la motivacion de miembros del gobierno central para titular 12 por ciento del territorio hondureno como tierra indigena entre 2012 y 2016. La evidencia presentada sugiere que el gobierno central titula tierra indigena como una estrategia para reforzar su dominio en localidades vulnerables sin presencia estatal.

For some decades now, international humanitarian interventions and peacebuilding processes have been criticized for being technocratic, top-down, Eurocentric, and committed to intrusive state-build...

Among the many nation-building projects launched soon after India’s Independence, crafts had a prominent role as a key way to support Indian culture, encourage diverse Indian production and build r...

Management of labor was central to articulating and constructing U.S. colonialism in the southern Philippines. Governed by American military officers for fifteen years (1899–1914), the major island of Mindanao and those of the Sulu Archipelago became sites of intensive race management efforts. Colonial officials identified racialized Muslim and Lumad societies as out of step with the modern world of work and developed myriad programs to address this “problem,” including mandatory service on public works projects, carceral labor, industrial education, and directed markets. Unevenly applied and frequently contested, these initiatives generated a range of responses from local actors. The drive to create disciplined laborers through incentive, coercion, and violence shaped state building in the region and linked it to preoccupations with work and racial reform in other U.S. imperial possessions and the wider colonized world.

Palestine Is Throwing a Party and the Whole World Is Invited: Capital and State Building in the West Bank is a sobering ethnography about the current and possibly future situation in Palestine or, ...

The article evaluates the current worsening security situation in Burkina Faso and ties it to a lack of state-building in the country. Based on Tilly's approach to state-building, it, consequently,...

Since 2011 renewed fighting between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has triggered the internal displacement of more than 100,000 people in Kachin state. This article examines how care practices and care ethics influence border governance in the context of humanitarian concerns in Kachin state in northern Myanmar, which shares a border with China. The situation in Kachin state at the China-Myanmar border reveals the contrasting territorial logics at stake, the contingency of governance at a time of political transition, and distinct ‘regimes of care’, as manifested through humanitarian relief, which all contribute towards border governance. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews, the article highlights how care deficits are met by a separatist government, community organizations (both faith-based and secular), and diaspora populations which mobilize a range of networks and resources—forming webs of connections and interfacing with one another—to provide humanitarian relief. However, their actions and the ensuing flows of care could produce or deepen political subjectivities that are geared towards territorial contestation and separatism, thus changing expressions of border governance. The article further observes that the Kachin situation has wider implications for the peace negotiations taking place at the national level in Myanmar.

Throughout the twentieth century, the ideas of Marx and Lenin were fervently listened to, adopted, modified and confronted in Africa and Asia – an ideational and organisational reservoir still of f...

While Russia has always defined herself, since WW II the latest, in relation to America, the focus of the Russian foreign economy and foreign policy has traditionally been and remained Europe. In the new millenium this contradiction is increased by postmodernity and the policy of the balance of powers of the 19th century. The paper - with a historical overview - justifies that the solution is the unusual relationship between foreign policy and internal policy. Whereas in most countries foreign policy is the extension of the internal policy, in Russia it has been and currently is also the other way round. Foreign policy is the extension of the internal policy, in Russia it has been and currently is also the otherway round. Foreign policy is the means of internal, national and state building efforts and is understandable only from this point of view.

This article offers reflections on the meaning of peace and peace-building in Africa and proposes a reframing of the state-building problematic. It argues for a shift in analytical lens by providin...

Post-colonial Africa is often represented as a tinderbox of conflictual ethnonational identities. Within this reckoning emerges the weak and failed states corpus. Against this background, if an eth...