Research On Charles Tilly' Theory Of The National State Formation

Charles Tilly is a famous historical sociologist in the United States.His works cover the fields of sociology,history and political science.It presents us with collective action,urban sociology,national state,contention and democracy,inequality,trust network and other issues of fruitful research results.When he died,he left behind more than 50 books and 600 papers,has a wide influence all over the world.Tilly's theory of the national state formation is one of the most representative views in the history of the Western State-building.He believes that national state is centralized and has a unique autonomous structure to govern many neighboring regions and cities,and the national state formation is the process which is obtaining the characteristics of the state.In the past thousand years,there were three main types of states in Europe,they are city-state,empire and national state,and it was not until the 17 th century that the national state gradually became the main form.How do you explain that great differences in time and space between the types of states? How to explain the transformation of different types into the national states finally? That is the two main problems to be solved in Tilly's theory of national state formation.Tilly sees the role of the city and the interactive growth relationship between the city and the state,from which he abstracts the analytical framework of "capital and coercion",and believes that their different combinations bring about different types of states.Tilly also places particular emphasis on the interaction between the form of war and the capacity of the state,arguing that the war contributed to the formation and transformation of the state,and that war and war preparation require the rulers to extract resources from the nationals,In this bargaining,the organizations and the structure of the state were shaped.In addition,Tilly also noticed that the national state have two faces,both international and domestic.The national state,with its incomparable advantages of waging war,finally won out in Europe and expanded to the rest of the world.This paper is divided into four parts,except the introduction,the other three parts respectively comb the origin,the basic views and theoretical analysis,formed a systematic and complete interpretation framework of Tilly's theory of the national state formation.The first part comprehensively summarizes the study of State-building and Tilly's academic thought at home and abroad;the second part mainly analyzes the background and reasons from three aspects: the background of the times,the theoretical background and the personal experience;The third part elucidates the basic viewpoint of Tilly's theory of the national state formation,analyzes and discusses what the national state is,the critical factors of the national state formation and the interaction between them;The fourth part is from the two aspects which are the study method and the theoretical content to carry on the comprehensive appraisal of Tilly's theory,in order to fully excavate its thought value,and make our form a better understanding of this theory.On the whole,Tilly's research gives us the inspiration that we must return to the actual historical situation,and think about the origin and development of the state,basing on their own conditions and reality.