What state capacity is and how to strengthen it remain open questions, as the underlying
incentives of the state, its citizens, and its agents align in some areas of state activity and …

The economic crisis of 2008–2010 stimulated an already growing sociological interest in
finance. Before the crisis, disintermediation and securitization changed how the US financial …

Why do modern states regulate and provide mass education? This article proposes a theory
of education as a state-building tool that is deployed when mass violence threatens the …

This paper explores the role of civic culture in expanding fiscal capacity by develo** a
model based on reciprocal obligations: citizens pay their taxes and the state provides public …

The central question in taxation and development is:“how does a government go from
raising around 10% of GDP in taxes to raising around 40%?” This paper looks at the …

What role does war play in political development? Our understanding of the rise of the
nation-state is based heavily on the Western European experience of war. Challenging the …

Sources of state revenue have a major impact on patterns of state formation. This
proposition from fiscal sociology is valid and convincing in the context of western European …

Scholars of development have learned a great deal about what economic institutions do, but
much less about the origins of such arrangements. This article introduces and assesses a …

Most humans are significantly richer than their ancestors. Humanity gained nearly all of its
wealth in the last two centuries. How did this come to pass? How did the world become rich …

The conventional wisdom that the poor are less likely to vote than the rich is based upon
research on voting behavior in advanced industrialized countries. However, in some places …