Germany's and Italy's belated national unifications continue to loom
large in contemporary debates. Often regarded as Europe's paradigmatic
instances of failed modernization, the two countries form the basis of
many of our most prized theories of social science. Structuring the
State undertakes one of the first systematic comparisons of the two
cases, putting the origins of these nation-states and the nature of
European political development in new light. Daniel Ziblatt begins his
analysis with a striking puzzle: Upon national unification, why was
Germany formed as a federal nation-state and Italy as a unitary
nation-state? He traces the diplomatic maneuverings and high political
drama of national unification in nineteenth-century Germany and Italy
to refute the widely accepted notion that the two states' structure
stemmed exclusively from Machiavellian farsightedness on the part of
militarily powerful political leaders. Instead, he demonstrates that
Germany's and Italy's "founding fathers" were constrained by two very
different pre-unification patterns of institutional development. In
Germany, a legacy of well-developed sub-national institutions provided
the key building blocks of federalism. In Italy, these institutions'
absence doomed federalism. This crucial difference in the organization
of local power still shapes debates about federalism in Italy and
Germany today. By exposing the source of this enduring contrast,
Structuring the State offers a broader theory of federalism's origins
that will interest scholars and students of comparative politics,
state-building, international relations, and European political
history.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781400827244
Publisert
2013
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter