EN

Book

The Sovereign State and Its Competitors: An Analysis of Systems Change

Hendrik Spruyt · Princeton University Press · 1994

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Type: Book
Author: Hendrik Spruyt
Identifier: DOI 10.1515/9780691213057
Accessed: 2026-09-01

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DisputedUsing data on European states from 1100 to 1790, Abramson found that small political units persisted well into the age of the territorial state and argued that economic development and urban growth, rather than changes in war making, explain where large territorial states formed.TheoryOne influential account argues that the sovereign territorial state was not inevitable: several forms of authority, including city-leagues and city-states, emerged from feudalism, and only later did sovereign territorial authority prove more successful at organising domestic society and structuring external affairs.