Plasticity Into Power PA

by Unger,Roberto Mangabeira

• ISBN13: 9781844675166
• ISBN10: 1844675165
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-17
• Publisher: VERSO

Summary

Plasticity into Power works out, through historical examples, a major theme of Unger's work the relation between institutional and organizational flexibility and the development of our collective ability to produce or to destroy. The message of the book is that the practical success of a society depends on its capacity for permanent innovation. Certain practices and institutions the history and content of which Unger explores can nurture this capacity.Unger pursues this topic through wide-ranging historical inquiries into the European escape from the recurring crises that foreclosed political and economic breakthroughs in the great empires of the past; the invention of revolutionary approaches to the governmental protection of wealth; and the social conditions of military success, viewed as sources of insight into the social foundations of economic growth. Throughout, Plasticity into Power exemplifies a conception of the relation between theory and history that remains faithful to the surprising, open-ended quality of lived experience.

Author Biography

Roberto Mangagbeira Unger is Professor of Law at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Periodic Breakdown of Governments and Economies in Agrarian-Bureaucratic Societies: Its Causes, Antidotes, and Lessons: A Comparative Study of the Relation Between Failures of Institutional Invention and Constraints on Group Conflict	p. 3
The Problem Stated and the Argument Previewed	p. 3
Why the Reversion Cycle Has Not Been Widely Discussed and Why Its Theoretical Implications Are Far-Reaching	p. 8
The Avoidance of Reversion	p. 10
The Concept of Reversion Refined	p. 13
The Antireversion Policies	p. 21
The European Escape from the Cycle of Reversion	p. 25
The Japanese Alternative to the European Escape Route	p. 42
Escape Through Statecraft: The Chinese Experience	p. 50
Frustrated Escape: The Russian Experience	p. 61
The Reversion Cycle Reconsidered: The Social Conditions of Governmental Autonomy	p. 67
The Confrontation Between Agrarian-Bureaucratic Empires and Their Nomadic Adversaries: Lessons in the Antidote to Reversion	p. 70
A Digression on the Strength of States and the Divisions of Societies	p. 80
The Avoidance of Reversion: Its Sequel and Significance	p. 90
Note on Sources for the Comparative Study of Antireversion Policies	p. 96
The Standpoint of the Nomadic Conquerors	p. 100
Wealth and Force: An Antinecessitarian Analysis of the Protection Problem	p. 113
Two Traditional Solutions to the Protection Problem	p. 113
The European Innovation	p. 120
The Example of Public Finance	p. 125
The Lessons of State Rivalry: Abortive and Successful European Solutions	p. 132
The Antinecessitarian Implications of the Analysis	p. 139
The Technological Setting of the Successful European Solutions	p. 141
The Social Setting of the Successful European Solutions	p. 143
The Geopolitical Setting of the Successful European Solutions	p. 147
Note on a Problem in the Relation Between the Arguments of Chapters 1 and 2	p. 150
Plasticity into Power: Social Conditions of Military Success	p. 153
The Theme and Its Significance	p. 153
Some Categories of Analysis	p. 154
Plasticity or Death: Mamluk, Norman, and African Examples	p. 162
Plasticity and Compromise: European Examples	p. 170
Provisional Conclusions	p. 186
The Limits of Compromise: Chinese and Japanese Examples	p. 192
Understanding and Harnessing the Imperative of Social Plasticity	p. 206
Historical Tables	p. 213
Index	p. 217
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