Preface and acknowledgments; Part I. The origins of Representative Institutions: Power, Land, and Courts: 1. Introduction; 2. A theory of institutional emergence: regularity, functional fusion, and the origins of parliament; 3. Explaining institutional layering and functional fusion: the role of power; Part II. Origins of Representative Rractice: Power, Obligation, and Taxation: 4. Taxation and representative practice: bargaining vs compellence; 5. Variations in representative practice: 'absolutist' France and Castile; 6. No taxation of elites, no representative institutions; Part III. Trade, Towns, and the Political Economy of Representation: 7. Courts, institutions, and cities: Low Countries and Italy; 8. Courts, institutions, and territory: Catalonia; 9. The endogeneity of trade: the English wool trade and the Castilian mesta; Part IV. Land, Conditionality, and Property Rights: 10. Power, land, and second-best constitutionalism: Central and Northern Europe; 11. Conditional land law, property rights, and 'Sultanism': premodern English and Ottoman land regimes; 12. Land, tenure, and assemblies: Russia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; Part V. Why Representation in the West: Petitions, Collective Responsibility, and Supra-Local Organization: 13. Petitions, collective responsibility, and representative practice: England, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
The first systematic account of how structures of justice led to the emergence of representative institutions and state-formation in Western Europe.
Deborah Boucoyannis teaches Comparative Politics at George Washington University. This book is based on a dissertation that received the American Political Science Association's Ernst Haas Best Dissertation Award in European Politics and the Seymour Martin Lipset Best Dissertation Award from the Society for Comparative Research. She has published in Perspectives on Politics, Politics and Society, and other journals.
'This is a book of immense and stimulating breadth, providing a
powerful argument for the importance of the administration of
justice as a core aspect of the emergence of representative
institutions. It will challenge historians to rethink their own
fields of concentration in comparative fashion and will also bring
historical scholarship and perspectives to the work of social
scientists.' John Hudson, Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Legal
History, University of St Andrews, and L. Bates Lea Global Law
Professor, University of Michigan
'Almost everything we have taken for granted about the historical
sociology of constitutionalism is here shown to be wrong: the
strength rather than the weakness of kings, and justice rather than
taxation, did most to develop parliamentary powers. That this is so
is powerfully demonstrated by exemplary comparative scholarship on
western Europe on the one hand and on Russia and the Ottomans on
the other. This is a masterpiece that will occasion debate,
re-orient the field, and remain with us for an age.' John A. Hall,
Emeritus James McGill Professor of Sociology, McGill University
'In this powerful and learned work Deborah Boucoyannis retells the
story of representative institutions in Europe, challenging much
existing social science scholarship in this area. Rather than
concentrating only on fiscal affairs, she shows us that to
understand the emergence of representation, we need to look to the
administration of justice, and how, when, and where it developed.
This is a fascinating and highly original piece of scholarship.'
David Stasavage, Dean for the Social Sciences & Julius Silver
Professor of Politics, New York University
'This is a path-breaking, inter-disciplinary, and extraordinarily
ambitious book, which seeks to explain how representative
institutions first emerged. Boucoyannis constructs a compelling and
innovative case for the processes of justice as the critical factor
shaping representative emergence, where a central authority
exercised control over the nobility while obligating local
communities to participate in the provision of justice, which
gradually transformed into a demand for rights. Boucoyannis's grasp
of both the social theory and the historical record is breath
taking, and her arguments will require theorists and empiricists
from various disciplines to reappraise fundamentally their
interpretation of this important subject.' Mark Bailey, Professor
of Late Medieval History, University of East Anglia, and James Ford
Lecturer in British History, University of Oxford
'This is a brave and uniquely difficult book. Both adjectives imply
warm commendation. Reading deeply into history and political
theory, Dr Boucoyannis has dared to explicate a massive historical
problem - the origins of western liberalism and constitutionalism -
in theoretical perspectives so as virtually to reconceive a major
field. For the problem she addresses is beset with a huge
conceptual difficulty: how to reconcile the ever shifting pasts of
human power with the more stubborn meanings of theoretical
concepts: government, rights, law, representation, etc. Her novel
results will repay careful study.' Thomas N. Bisson, Emeritus Henry
Charles Lea Professor of Medieval History, Harvard University
'It is commonplace to describe scholarly work as 'groundbreaking',
but Professor Boucoyannis' book, and especially her chapter on
Ottoman land law, really do merit this description. She is the
first to notice the similarities between English land-law after the
Norman Conquest and Ottoman land-law between the fourteenth and
sixteenth centuries. Both legal systems made tenure on the land
conditional, although it was the Ottoman system that gave control
only, not ownership, of the land to the ruler. They had similar
restraints on alienation and similar laws governing peasant land
tenure. This chapter also demonstrates that the English crown
wielded greater power than did the Ottoman sultans, thus
undermining the old view that it was the 'arbitrary' rule of the
sultans that prevented the emergence of representative institutions
in the Ottoman Empire. The chapter is valuable in its own right,
especially for historians studying the fundamental principles of
the Ottoman laws of property and land tenure.' Colin Imber,
University of Manchester, author of Ebu's-su'ud: The Islamic Legal
Tradition
'This bold and ambitious book marries history and political theory
to solve the riddle of why representative institutions emerged in
the West, pre-eminently in England rather than elsewhere. The
question is hardly novel, but the solution is...A short review
cannot hope to encapsulate the breadth of treatment and the depth
of reasoning in this remarkable book.' Peter Coss, Journal of
Interdisciplinary History
'Boucoyannis develops an original and fascinating theoretical
argument, centering on the role of powerful kings and their ability
to call on their nobilities to gather in one location and deal with
issues of justice. She also amasses a wealth of empirical evidence
from a diverse set of countries … The book contributes with new
knowledge on a host of important issues, such as the importance of
including the nobility for building strong and viable institutions.
Reading it was a great academic experience, and I have subsequently
modified several of my prior beliefs about historical political
development.' Carl Henrik Knutsen, Governance
'In a time when democratic principles and liberal orders are
faltering and constraints on autocratic power are under attack,
this study of their foundations provides valuable insight.
Recommended.' L. C. Attreed, Choice
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