The Changing Architecture of Politics: Structure, Agency and the Future of the State

This original analysis of structuration, agency and the state offers an incisive explanation of the changing nature of the state. Cerny argues that the state is not being transcended; the architecture of politics is not moving beyond the nation-state despite the emergence of transnational structures. He points to the movement of many states towards the model of the `competition state′, and away from the model of `welfare state′, as the major contemporary change in the role of the state. He asserts that new forms of political action will have to evolve if the state itself is to be controlled and used for the pursuit of deeper human values in the 21st century.

Table of Contents:
Preface and Introduction PART ONE: THE PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL STRUCTURATION: STRUCTURE, AGENCY, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN STATE Political Structuration and Political Science The Elements of Political Structure Patterns of Agency Markets, Hierarchies and Political Allocation The Modern State at the Crossroads Structuring the Field of Political Action PART TWO: CHANGING PATTERNS OF POLITICAL STRUCTURATION AND THE FUTURE OF THE STATE The Limits of Political Power Personal Leadership and Party Systems The State and Interest Intermediation Patterns of Collaborative Behaviour The Paradox of Civil Society De-differentiation and Re-differentiation in the Contemporary State Transnational Structures and the State Responses From the Welfare State to the Competition State Epilogue Political Structuration and Political Ideas in the 21st Century

Review :
`In my view, it is the best introduction available in English to contemporary academic discussions about the purpose and prospects of applying the comparative method to political science.... Cerny′s book is comprehensive in scope and accomplishes three quite rare tasks: it brings together material on North America, Western Europe and Japan... it combines theories of comparative politics and international relations; it pays equal attention to systems of party competition and of interest intermediation, although its primary focus is upon the state.... Philip Cerny has produced a tour de force, an intelligent, erudite and comprehensive text that cuts decisively through artificial barriers within the discipline′ - Political Science Quarterly `Philip Cerny has written a superb analysis of the changing conditions of statehood′ - Canadian Journal of Political Science