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Does American influence help or hinder the capacity-building of partner states? In Hierarchy and the State, Patrick Shea challenges the conventional wisdom that US influence undermines state-building in developing countries, instead arguing that US support has actually enhanced state capacity over the past 40 years. The book asserts that American economic power plays a pivotal role in enhancing a state's ability to build and sustain itself. Tracing the evolution of US property rights promotion from 1782 to the present, it reveals the complex interplay of economic and security interests that shape American foreign policy. Through cutting-edge quantitative techniques and original data on US hierarchy, Hierarchy and the State provides robust evidence for the mechanisms linking international influence, property rights, and state-building outcomes. Its novel framework will change the way scholars examine the international politics of state-building.
List of contents
1. The United States and international state-building efforts; 2. The international politics of state-building; 3. Hierarchy, property rights, and state capacity; 4. The United States and external property rights; 5. Measuring hierarchy; 6. Statistical analysis of hierarchy, property rights, and state capacity; 7. American hierarchy and its discontents: unpacking the consequences for partner states; 8. Enter China: new hierarchies and state development; 9. Hierarchy and the state in a multipolar world; Index.
About the author
Patrick E. Shea is Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow. His research focuses on the political economy of conflict and international finance. He has published in leading journals, including the British Journal of Political Science and has received funding from the National Science Foundation.
