This engaging introduction to contemporary politics examines the historical construction of the modern territorial
state. Opello and Rosow fuse accounts of governing practices, technological change, political economy, language,
and culture into a narrative of the formation of specific state forms. This revised edition reinforces their central
argument that the current neoliberal state does not represent a fundamentally new form, but is an attempt to reconstitute
the managerial state in the context of globalization.
Incorporating the most recent scholarship, other significant changes in the new edition include more emphasis on
the interconnections of state and state-system, discussions of emerging forms of international violence and war,
and attention to the increasingly multicultural character of states.
Studies of state formation in Congo, England, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Nigeria, Russia, Turkey, and the U.S.
enrich the discussion, which ranges from ancient Rome to the present.
Table of Contents
Introduction: A Historical Approach to the State and Global Order.
THE EMERGENCE OF THE TERRITORIAL STATE.
The Ancient Roman State: Imperial Rule.
The Feudal "State": Indirect Rule.
The Medieval State: Territorial Sovereignty Instituted.
MTHE MODERN TERRITORIAL STATE.
The Absolutist State: Sovereignty Unbound.
The Liberal Constitutional State: Sovereignty Popularlized.
The Antiliberal State: Sovereignty Particularized.
The Managerial State: Sovereignty Rationalized.
The Colonial State: Sovereignty Expanded.
GLOBALIZING THE TERRITORIAL STATE.
The Nation-State: Sovereignty Reimagined.
The Postcolonial State: Instituting Sovereignty.
CHALLENGES TO THE STATE.
The Present State of States: Sovereignty Challenged.
Conclusion: A New Global Order?
