Why the Seventies? Scholars have lots of reasons. We shall steal some. But before we do, the rise of the states can be viewed, and explained in at least two languages: one spoken in the Policy World and the other in the Practitioner. The Policy World speaks in models, concepts, theoretical frameworks with hidden ideological assumptions. It usually finds great forces at work, gives them fifteen letter names, and studies them with aggregate data, statistical correlations, and a few algorithms tossed in. In this world dynamic forces compel deterministic conformity from the players. Our history contains a number of these.
The Practitioner World sees waves, not tides, people not abstract global forces, economic sectors and policy-political regimes/coalitions. Personality, media, demographic dynamics, economic base transitions and politics are why things happen. In this world, everything is unique. Case studies and proper names dominate, and often the only “order” or commonalities that emerge from these are obvious conclusions that dare not be applied without qualification somewhere else. The trouble for us is that the perspectives of both Worlds played a role in the rise of the states.
Ron W. Coan 