Suchergebnisse

In her response to our article, Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni replaces balance-of-power theory (threat of hegemony begets balancing, which produces a tendency of international systems toward equilibria of power) with a complex congeries of competing and contingent conjectures about when states might balance. While these are certainly part of the extensive literature on the balance of power, lumping them together and calling them a `theory' invites a comedy of errors rather than an empirical test. The `ado' in our article was a novel empirical test of a theory that has been central to centuries of IR theorizing. As our review of the evidence confirms, this theory can indeed be evaluated in ancient and non-European international systems, and it is wrong: international systems do not tend toward equilibria of power, and balancing is relatively unimportant in explaining the equilibria that do occur. We end up agreeing with the gist of Sangiovanni's response: there is no empirically valid systemic balance-of-power theory, and it is time to turn to contingent middle-range hypotheses about balancing behavior.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- Introduction: The Complex and Contested History of Democracy -- Part I Pre-Classical Democracy -- Chapter 1 Prehistory -- Chapter 2 The Assyrians -- Chapter 3 Ancient India -- Chapter 4 Ancient China -- Chapter 5 Israel and Phoenicia -- Part II Classical Democracy -- Chapter 6 Early Greece -- Chapter 7 Athens -- Chapter 8 Rome -- Part III Medieval Democracy -- Chapter 9 Islam -- Chapter 10 Venice -- Chapter 11 The Nordic Countries -- Chapter 12 The Christian Church -- Part IV Early Modern Democracy -- Chapter 13 The English Parliament -- Chapter 14 The Levellers and Diggers -- Chapter 15 The Swiss Cantons -- Chapter 16 The American Revolution -- Chapter 17 The French Revolution -- Part V Colonialism and Democracy -- Chapter 18 Africa -- Chapter 19 Native Americans -- Chapter 20 Australasia -- Chapter 21 Singapore -- Part VI National Movements -- Chapter 22 1808: South American Liberation -- Chapter 23 1848: European Revolutions -- Chapter 24 1919: After Versailles -- Chapter 25 1945: Post-Second World War Japan -- Chapter 26 1989: Eastern Europe -- Part VII Peoples' Movements -- Chapter 27 Anti-Slavery -- Chapter 28 Women's Suffrage -- Chapter 29 Socialism, Communism, Anarchism -- Chapter 30 Civil Rights -- Part VIII Democracy Today -- Chapter 31 South Africa -- Chapter 32 Bolivia -- Chapter 33 Georgia -- Chapter 34 Iraq -- Chapter 35 Burma -- Chapter 36 China since Tiananmen Square -- Chapter 37 Islam since 9/11 -- Part IX Futures and Possibilities -- Chapter 38 Democracy Promotion -- Chapter 39 Transnational Democracy -- Chapter 40 Digital Democracy -- Chapter 41 Radical Democracy -- Chapter 42 Deliberative Democracy -- Chapter 43 New Thinking -- Conclusion: The Future History of Democracy -- Notes on the Contributors -- Index