Description
Book SynopsisHow do modern states emerge from the turmoil of undergoverned spaces? This is the question Reo Matsuzaki ponders in Statebuilding by Imposition. Comparing Taiwan and the Philippines under the colonial rule of Japan and the United States, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he shows similar situations produce different outcomes and yet lead us to one conclusion.
Contemporary statebuilding efforts by the US and the UN start from the premise that strong states can and should be constructed through the establishment of representative government institutions, a liberalized economy, and laws that protect private property and advance personal liberties. But when statebuilding runs into widespread popular resistance, as it did in both Taiwan the Philippines, statebuilding success depends on reconfiguring the very fabric of society, embracing local elites rather than the broad population, and giving elites the power to discipline the people. In Taiwan under Jap
Trade Review
This tightly argued institutional analysis of "statebuilding by imposition" in two colonial settings contends that Japan successfully built the machinery of a "high-scope" state in Taiwan while the United States largely failed in a similar effort in the Philippine Islands... this book is a valuable contribution to colonial studies. It is well written, exhaustively researched, and heartily recommended.
* Diplomatic History *
The book should be essential reading for scholars and policymakers interested or engaged in statebuilding by imposition, with its provocative but convincing arguments and detailed evidence about the dilemma of the liberal-democratic—yet inherently undemocratic—approach to statebuilding.
* Pacific Affairs *
Reo Matsuzaki's Statebuilding by Imposition moves beyond familiar theoretical formulations examining intra-imperial state formations to the more challenging task of comparing inter-imperial administrative divergence. Matsuzaki's approach is both refreshing and insightful.
* The Journal of American-East Asian Relations *
