The influence of the state on human lives is more comprehensive and sustained than that of any other organizational construct. It steers the economy, fights crime, provides education, sustains democracy, enters wars, guarantees social welfare, collects taxes, and deploys some forty percent of the gross national product. Transformations of the State� defines the multi-faceted modern state in four intersecting dimensions: resources, or control of the use of force and revenues; law, or jurisdiction and the courts; legitimacy, or the acceptance of political rule by the populace; and...

Arguing that legal rules can be implemented beyond national boundaries, this volume examines compliance beyond the nation-state. Four contributors compare compliance with regulations that have been formulated in a very similar way at different levels of governance. They demonstrate that nation states do not necessarily display the best compliance records and that a high degree of legalization, verification and sanctioning systems seem to be more important.

Globalization processes are propelling a transformation of governance. As political problems become more transnational, public as well as private actors increasingly perform governance activities beyond the level of individual states. This book examines the wide variety of forms that governance can take in the global system and their consequences. An overarching analytical framework is applied to global institutions and initiatives in areas such as trade liberalization, financial market regulation, privacy protection, cybercrime, and food safety.

Arguing that legal rules can be implemented beyond national boundaries, this volume examines compliance beyond the nation-state. Four contributors compare compliance with regulations that have been formulated in a very similar way at different levels of governance. They demonstrate that nation states do not necessarily display the best compliance records and that a high degree of legalization, verification and sanctioning systems seem to be more important.

This volume explores the various strategies, mechanisms, and processes that influence rule of law dynamics across borders and the national/international divide, illuminating the diverse paths of influence. It shows to what extent, and how, rule of law dynamics have changed in recent years, especially at the transnational and international levels of government. To explore these interactive dynamics, the volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together the normative perspective of law with the analytical perspective of social sciences. The volume contributes to several fields,...

Functional differentiation has long been at the heart of sociological thought, and as such has become a defining feature in the evolution of modern society; one which distinguishes it from pre-modern societies which have instead typically differentiated by means of segmentation, or stratified social systems such as class. Drawing on the latest developments on differentiation theory in international relations and sociology, this book brings together contributions from leading IR scholars and sociological theorists to offer a unique interdisciplinary synthesis in which contemporary world...

This book applies the analytical approach called Historical Institutionalism (HI)- so far mostly used within comparative politics-to the field of International Relations (IR). It provides an introduction to HI concepts and makes an argument for why it is particularly well-suited for understanding current developments within international institutions. In particular, it helps us to understand the combination of change and stability that together form the dynamics of institutional development over time.
It is the first book to collect original, empirical research applying historical...

This book shows how international organizations have a greater capacity to violate human rights, but also take on responsibility to avert such harm.