Political science has had trouble generating models that unify
the study of the formation and consolidation of various types of
states and empires. The business-administration literature,
however, has long experience in observing organizations. According
to a dominant model in this field, business firms generally take
one of two forms: unitary (U) or multidivisional (M). The U-form
organizes its various elements along the lines of administrative
functions, whereas the M-form governs its periphery according to
geography and territory.
In Logics of Hierarchy, Alexander Cooley applies this model to
political hierarchies across different cultures, geographical
settings, and historical eras to explain a variety of seemingly
disparate processes: state formation, imperial governance, and
territorial occupation. Cooley illustrates the power of this formal
distinction with detailed accounts of the experiences of Central
Asian republics in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras, and compares
them to developments in the former Yugoslavia, the governance of
modern European empires, Korea during and after Japanese
occupation, and the recent U.S. occupation of Iraq.
In applying this model, Logics of Hierarchy reveals the varying
organizational ability of powerful states to promote institutional
transformation in their political peripheries and the consequences
of these formations in determining pathways of postimperial
extrication and state-building. Its focus on the common
organizational problems of hierarchical polities challenges much of
the received wisdom about imperialism and postimperialism.
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