State Building and State Failure

During its long life had the state evolved into different types and eventually, in the last half a millennium or so, matured into its modern version. That modern version originated and evolved in a specific region of the world and then spread to the rest. In some regions it took strong roots, in others it did not. And that version has become, and still is, the standard model of statehood. And that is the stark variation we now observe across different regions of the world. Some regions meet that standard model. Some do not. The rest stand somewhere between the two.

This class introduces that modern version of the state. Let us call it the modern state. What are its basic features? Where is its origin? What are the stages and paths of its evolution? What domestic changes did it bring about on its evolutionary path? How did it spread to other regions of the world and become the standard model of statehood? Why did some regions succeed in replicating their own modern states? Why did some others fail? What does it take to build a modern state? What good deed does it do when it succeeds? What bad deeds come out when it fails? These are the questions and their likes this course asks and seeks to address.