scholarly journals Discrimination and State Capacity: Evidence from WWII U.S. Army Enlistment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Qian ◽  
Marco Tabellini
Keyword(s):  
State Capacity

Assessing State Capacity Libertarianism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Murphy ◽  
Colin O'Reilly
Keyword(s):  
State Capacity

A New Measure of State Capacity, 1789-2018

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin O'Reilly ◽  
Ryan Murphy
Keyword(s):  
State Capacity

Suffering Spectators of Development

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjun Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Central Government ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Alternative View

This chapter offers an alternative view of the incidence and duration of insurgencies in the postcolonial world. Insurgencies and civil wars are seen as the primary symptom of state weakness, the inability of the central government to monopolize violence. Challenging extant explanations that identify poverty and low state capacity as the cause of insurgencies, the chapter shows that colonial insurgencies, also occurring in the context of poverty and state weakness, were shorter and ended in regime victories, while contemporary insurgencies are longer and states are less successful at subduing them. The reason for this is the development of exclusive identities—based on ethnicity, religion, tribe—in the colonial period. These identities serve as bases for mobilization to challenge state power and demand services from the state. Either way, such mobilization means that popular demands for services exceed the willingness to disarm and/or pay taxes, that is, to supply the state.

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