Different paths to the modern state in Europe: the interaction between domestic political economy and interstate competition

Theoretical work on state formation and capacity has focused mostly on early modern Europe and on the experience of western European states during this period. While a number of European states monopolized domestic tax collection and achieved gains in state capacity during the early modern era, for others revenues stagnated or even declined, and these variations motivated alternative hypotheses for determinants of fiscal and state capacity. In this study we test the basic hypotheses in the existing literature making use of the large date set we have compiled for all of the leading states across the continent. We find strong empirical support for two prevailing threads in the literature, arguing respectively that interstate wars and changes in economic structure towards an urbanized economy had positive fiscal impact. Regarding the main point of contention in the theoretical literature, whether it was representative or authoritarian political regimes that facilitated the gains in fiscal capacity, we do not find conclusive evidence that one performed better than the other. Instead, the empirical evidence we have gathered lends supports to the hypothesis that when under pressure of war, the fiscal performance of representative regimes was better in the more urbanized-commercial economies and the fiscal performance of authoritarian regimes was better in rural-agrarian economie

Turkey and the EU: a 'new' European identity in the making?

This paper conducts an ontological inquiry into the identity of the European Union, and seeks to establish whether its core identity is of a cultural or political nature through looking at the debate generated by Turkey’s application for EU membership. The concepts of ‘the other’, the nation-state and a secularism rooted in Christianity contributes towards a peculiar culturalist understanding of the EU project both on the left and on the right side of the political spectrum. The debate also demonstrates that there is a gap between what the EU ought to be judging from its fundamental documents, and what kind form of the EU ‘Europe’ is ready for. The liberal idea of the EU being a purely political union based on Kantian ideals will require a whole new language for talking about Europe

Turkey and the EU: A ‘new’ European identity in the making?

This paper conducts an ontological inquiry into the identity of the European Union, and seeks to establish whether its core identity is of a cultural or political nature through looking at the debate generated by Turkey’s application for EU membership. The concepts of ‘the other’, the nation-state and a secularism rooted in Christianity contributes towards a peculiar culturalist understanding of the EU project both on the left and on the right side of the political spectrum. The debate also demonstrates that there is a gap between what the EU ought to be judging from its fundamental documents, and what kind form of the EU ‘Europe’ is ready for. The liberal idea of the EU being a purely political union based on Kantian ideals will require a whole new language for talking about Europe.Turkey; European identity; enlargement

A rights revolution in Europe? Regulatory and judicial approaches to nondiscrimination in insurance

In a recent decision, the European Court of Justice has ruled that insurers cannot discriminate on grounds of sex in setting premiums or determining benefits. This paper discusses the background to this decision. It asks whether we are seeing a US-style ‘rights revolution’, fuelled by judicial activism, as suggested by Dobbin et al’s hypothesis of ‘the strength of weak states’ or Kagan and Kelemen’s account of ‘adversarial legalism’. It is shown that neither of these theories captures the distinctive nature of the ECJ’s intervention. An industry-friendly policy was pursued in regulatory venues, but this was overridden by the ECJ’s interpretation of the fundamental right of equal treatment. However, it is also shown that the judicial defence of fundamental rights is a weak basis for social policy, and does not foreshadow a revolution in the development of social rights in Europe