The Arab State: Dilemmas of Late Formation Contributor(s): Saouli, Adham (Author) |
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ISBN: 0415602955 ISBN-13: 9780415602952 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $161.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: December 2011 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | Middle East - General - Political Science | Political Process - General - Social Science | Regional Studies |
Dewey: 320.917 |
LCCN: 2011024201 |
Physical Information: 0.6" H x 6.1" W x 9.2" (0.85 lbs) 164 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: This book explores the conditions of state formation and survival in the Middle East. Based on Historical Sociology, it provides a model for study of the state in the Arab world and a theory to explain its survival. Examining states as a 'process', the author argues that what emerged in the Middle East in the beginning of the twentieth century are 'social fields'--where states form and deform--and not states as defined by Max Weber. He explores the constitutions of these fields--their cultural, material and political structures--and identifies three stages of state development in which different cases can be located. Capturing the dilemmas that 'late-forming states' face as regimes within them cope with domestic and international pressure, the author illustrates several Middle East cases and presents a detailed analysis of state developments in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. He maintains that more than the domestic characteristics of individual states, state survival in the Middle East is also a function of the anarchic nature of the international (and by extension the regional) states-system. The first to raise the question on the survivability of the territorial states in the Middle East while engaging with both International Relations and Comparative Politics theories, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Middle East politics, Comparative Politics and International Relations. |