A Notable Administration: English State Formation and the Rise of Capitalism

Sayer, Derek

doi:10.1086/229905

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…In analyzing the peculiarities in the development of the English state Derek Sayer argues that from an early period the justices of the peace played a significant role in governance, noting that the magistrates' court “ was self‐governance but at the king's command” (: 1404). This local juridical power grew and changed in the nineteenth century, including control of the local magistrates' courts, and their powers of summary jurisdiction (speedy trial by magistrate without intervention of jury).…”

Section: An Alternative Genealogy Of Sovereignty and Labor Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconfiguring Sovereignty in Foucauldian Genealogies of Power: The Case of English Master and Servant Law and the Dispersion and the Exercise of Sovereignty in the Modern Age

Steinberg¹

2015

J Historical Sociology

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This paper is a critique and partial reconfiguration of the Foucauldian genealogy of sovereignty. Sovereignty is largely conceptualized as the antithesis of governmentality and disciplinary power in the modern age; presented as a negative case as a juridical and centralized power of interdiction and containment in the classical age. I argue that we can genealogically examine how sovereignty in the modern age underwent transformation and dispersion. My empirical focus is on how master and servant law in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, along with the development and transformations of local courts, led to the increasingly dispersal of sovereign power as it as practiced in specific industrial sites and regions.

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Section: An Alternative Genealogy Of Sovereignty and Labor Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconfiguring Sovereignty in Foucauldian Genealogies of Power: The Case of English Master and Servant Law and the Dispersion and the Exercise of Sovereignty in the Modern Age

Steinberg¹

2015

J Historical Sociology

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“…101 For Sayer, England's privilege of isolation meant it was not 'squandering productive resources on Continental empire building, nor obliged, to the same degree or in the same ways as Continental powers, to defend itself against others' expansionist predilections' during the precise period when agrarian capitalism was set to take hold. 102 Isolation was significant to the development of capitalism for two reasons. Firstly, in the absence of the socially disturbing effects of invasion, English society was peculiarly homogenous.…”

Section: Unevenness and Combinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

What’s at Stake in the Transition Debate? Rethinking the Origins of Capitalism and the ‘Rise of the West’

Anievas

Nişancıoğlu

2013

Millennium: Journal of International Studies

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This article draws on the theory of uneven and combined development (U&CD) to construct a non-Eurocentric and ‘internationalist’ analysis of the transition to capitalism. In doing so, we seek to respond to and rethink two challenges: exposures of Eurocentric notions of the ‘Rise of the West’ on the one hand; and recent critiques of Eurocentric assumptions in the theory of U&CD on the other. Beginning with an assessment of Robert Brenner’s Anglo-centric theorisation of capitalism’s origins, we argue Brenner’s efforts are hamstrung by an omission of international determinations and conditions. In turn, we retrace these missing international factors through an analysis of the Mongol invasions of the 13th/14th centuries, Ottoman imperial expansion in the 15th/16th centuries and the contemporaneous discovery and colonisation of the New World. We argue that each case demonstrates the historically specific forms of U&CD that fed into – and ultimately determined – the developmental trajectory of capitalism in north-western Europe.

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“…In other words, the state in this case is inseparable from the central government's collective representation of Englishness and the English nation. English (and later British) state formation is shown to be an 800‐year process through which the English subject and the English state are co‐constructed 17 Sayer. further develops the analysis by explaining the unique development of capitalism in England by reference to the institutional forms of state and civil society.…”

Section: The Culture Center Of Gravitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Articulating Theories of States and State Formation

Carroll¹

2009

J Historical Sociology

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Some historical sociologists have, with some justification, described the development of the sub-discipline in the language of three successive "waves." This framing implies that each wave supercedes the other across time. Given that second and third waves map onto generational distinctions, the whole idea of waves has been met with consternation from second wavers who are not ready to be superseded. In addition, there is some debate, if not confusion, over the criteria that define the waves. In this paper I suggest that the language of successive waves frustrates the potential to articulate different approaches with the aim of a more comprehensive understanding of historical societies. This is particularly the case with our understanding of states and state formation, which is the focus here. Instead of the waves framing, I suggest a strategy for articulating research agendas on state formation by conceiving of such in terms of their "centers of gravity" (or COGs) 1 rather than their boundaries. I pay particular attention to the body of work that can be said to have a concern with culture as its center of gravity, a body of work that while overlapping considerably is not co-extensive with that identified as third wave. In this context I elaborate a broad conceptual architecture of culture, at the foundation of which is the distinction between meaning, practice, and materiality. This triangulated conceptualization of culture can, I argue, clarify some ambiguities in the literature and aid articulation of three COGs in state theory. In addition, I suggest that many questions taken to be theoretical are actually empirical. I conclude by briefly illustrating the approach in the case of science and modern state formation in Ireland.

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A Notable Administration: English State Formation and the Rise of Capitalism

Cited by 20 publications

References 20 publications

Reconfiguring Sovereignty in Foucauldian Genealogies of Power: The Case of English Master and Servant Law and the Dispersion and the Exercise of Sovereignty in the Modern Age

Reconfiguring Sovereignty in Foucauldian Genealogies of Power: The Case of English Master and Servant Law and the Dispersion and the Exercise of Sovereignty in the Modern Age

What’s at Stake in the Transition Debate? Rethinking the Origins of Capitalism and the ‘Rise of the West’

Articulating Theories of States and State Formation

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