Leviathan Transformed

by Caplow, Theodore

• ISBN13: 9780773523043
• ISBN10: 0773523049
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: McGill Queens Univ

Summary

Leviathan Transformed is based on the premise that a national state is a particular type of organization and, at any given time and like any other organization, its performance can be evaluated with reasonable objectivity. The authors, an international team of eminent social scientists, examine the performance of seven states: Bulgaria, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United States. These nations pursue similar goals - union, justice, tranquillity, defence, welfare, liberty - which, in one form or another, are common to all democracies. Using these goals as a checklist, the authors found that each of the seven states performs well in some areas and badly in others. They discovered that all states approached these goals in a style shaped by their own history and, in particular, by how they have been affected by the troubles of the twentieth century. Their investigations offer a new, informative way of looking at these nation states and detail the social and political conditions in each state. Contributors include Theodore Caplow, Salustiano Del Campo (Royal Academy of Political and Social Science, Madrid), Nikolai Genov (Bulgaria Academy of Sciences), Karl-Otto Hondrich (Goethe University), Simon Langlois (Université de Laval), Alberto Martinelli (University of Milan), and Henri Mendras (OFCE, Paris).

Table of Contents

Contributors	vii
Introduction	3	(8)
Weak State/Strong Society	11	(30)
Alberto Martinelli
The German State in Comparative Perspective in the Year 2000	41	(28)
Karl Otto Hondrich
Six Aspects of the Spanish State	69	(39)
Salustiano Del Campo
Juan Manuel Camacho
The U.S. Government at the Turn of the Century	108	(27)
Theodore Caplow
The Contemporary Canadian State: Redefining a Social and Political Union	135	(37)
Simon Langlois
The Bulgarian State at the Turn of the Century	172	(21)
Nicolai Genov
Grading the French Leviathan	193	(20)
Henri Mendras
Concluding Remarks	213
Theodore Caplow