Preface and Acknowledgements
This book arises, as many do, out of a sense of dissatisfaction. Our particular frustration, as editors of this volume, arises from our growing dismay at the now very limited range of introductions to the theory of the state available to students of politics, international relations, sociology and cognate disciplines.
More frustrating still, those introductions that do exist tend, almost without exception, to focus rather narrowly on what we shall term the ‘traditional triumvirate’ of pluralism, elite theory and Marxism. They do so, moreover, in a manner that simply assumes that the state we study today is not recognizably different from the state that has formed the subject of the traditional triumvirate’s analytical concerns for over a century.To be fair, virtually no one would now accept that theories of the state come in only one of three varieties, nor that the object of the state theorist’s analytical attentions has remained essentially unaltered since the development of pluralism, elite theory and Marxism as approaches to the study of the state. Yet this only makes more glaring the disparity between, on the one hand, a now widely accepted understanding that things have moved on and, on the other, the picture presented of the theory of the state in the standard works used to introduce the concept to students.
Of course, as editors we are by no means totally innocent of the sins we now seek to correct. The text from which the present volume has developed, the first edition of David Marsh and Gerry Stoker’s Theory and Methods in Political Science (Palgrave, 1995), does contain a section on theories of the state. And, yes, that section is comprised of chapters on...pluralism, elite theory, Marxism and the degree of convergence between these perspectives. Whilst we could defend such a focus, we will not seek to do so. If this preface reads like a case for the prosecution, then Part III of the first edition of Marsh and Stoker is exhibit A.
That section was dropped from the revised second edition not, as it happens, as an act of contrition, but to make way for a fuller, richer and deeper consideration of the ontological, epistemological and methodological disputes which divide contemporary political analysts. And, serendipitously, that has provided the opportunity for the present volume - a volume dedicated to a consideration of the diversity of theoretical and analytical traditions that have something to say about the nature and development of the contemporary state, a volume committed to identifying the tendencies and counter-tendencies to which the contemporary state is subject, and a volume, above all, which seeks to explore the range of conceptual and theoretical resources on which we can now draw in making sense of the development of the state today.No project such as this is possible without the dedicated support of one’s publisher and the forbearance, understanding and good-will of the chapter authors. We have been exceptionally fortunate in both respects. We would like to thank Steven Kennedy, our exemplary, dedicated and seemingly tireless publisher. At times he has served almost as a fourth editor and there is no chapter that has not benefited from his considerable analytical insight and his editorial acumen. We would also like to thank the individual chapter authors for the efficiency and resourcefulness with which they have responded to our collective editorial requests, however whimsical at times they might have seemed (and may still seem). Thanks are also due to Laura Jenkins for editorial assistance. The editing of the project has proved a remarkably pleasurable experience - would that one could always say the same.
Finally, and as ever, the project would not have been possible without the love and support of our families. It is, appropriately, to them that we dedicate this volume. It is testimony to how grateful we are to them that, unlike our students, they will not be obliged to read it.
Birmingham COLIN HAY
Michael Lister
David Marsh
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