The Defective State

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third proposition, which is hardly new or original, is that authority over society and economy is undergoing another period of diffu sion, after two or three centuries in which it became increasingly centralized in the institution of the state. The three propositions together suggest two quite important conclusions. One, based on tacit premises about the state as the most important unit of analysis, is that much of Western social science is obsolescent, if not yet quite out-of-date. The second?the good news?is that the three propo sitions may offer the basis for a Cartesian synthesis of opposed paradigms in international studies, a synthesis which could resolve, at long last, a jejune dialogue of the deaf between apparently incompatible schools of thought about international relations that has bedeviled academic discussion?and puzzled a great many stu dents?for most of the latter half of the twentieth century. When I say that the nature of the competition between states has fundamental

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