This book addresses the role of political institutions in economic performance, examining the changing state-economy relationships through a comparative history of political and economic development in Britain, USA, Russia, Japan, Taiwan and Korea.

Failed or weak states, miscarried democratizations, and economic underdevelopment characterize a large part of the world we live in. Much work has been done on these subjects over the latest decades but most of this research ignores the deep historical processes that produced the modern state, modern democracy and the modern market economy in the first place. This book elucidates the roots of these developments. The book discusses why China was surpassed by Europeans in spite of its early development of advanced economic markets and a meritocratic state. It also hones in on the relationship between geopolitical pressure and state formation and on the European conditions that – from the Middle Ages onwards – facilitated the development of the modern state, modern democracy, and the modern market economy. Finally, the book discusses why some countries have been able to follow the European lead in the latest generations whereas other countries have not. State Formation, Regime Change and Economic Development will be of key interest to students and researchers within political science and history as well as to Comparative Politics, Political Economy and the Politics of Developing Areas.

The Rise of the Entrepreneurial State charts the development of state and local government initiatives to influence the market and strengthen economic development policies. This trend marked a decisive break from governments' traditionally small role in the affairs of private industry that defined the relationship between the public and private sector for the first half of the twentieth century. The turn to state and local government intervention signaled a change in subnational politics that, in many ways, transcended partisan politics, regional distinctions ,and racial alliances. Eisinger's meticulous research uncovers state and local governments' transition from supply-side to demand-side strategies of market creation. He shows that, instead of relying solely on the supply-side strategies of tax breaks and other incentives to encourage business relocation, some governments promoted innovation and the creation of new business approaches.

Comprehensive treatment of local economic development. Covers theory (classic and modern); tools (financing, tax policy, nonfinancial assistance); business attraction and retention; business creation (tools and current issues); the influence of high technology and education; and how to understand and evaluate the development readiness of each local environment. Detailed case studies highlight successful programs and also describe in detail the specific problems, challenges, and local realities that every development professional faces. Presents business-friendly innovations such as infrastructure improvements, site development, and training assistance. What is the role of government? What are the best targets for development? What is the importance of innovation? This book clarifies why each jurisdiction adopted the strategies it did and it presents the consequences of those strategies. Glossary and select bibliography.

This definitive work mixes case law, public policy, economic strategy, and examines the wide range of issues facing efforts to improve the American economy, to illustrate how economic growth is driven through strong public-private partnerships, and how successful growth strategies from the state and local level operate to grow jobs.

"Slavery and American Economic Development is a small book with a big interpretative punch. It is one of those rare books about a familiar subject that manages to seem fresh and new." -- Charles B. Dew, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "A stunning reinterpretation of southern economic history and what is perhaps the most important book in the field since Time on the Cross.... I frequently found myself forced to rethink long-held positions." -- Russell R. Menard, Civil War History Through an analysis of slavery as an economic institution, Gavin Wright presents an innovative look at the economic divergence between North and South in the antebellum era. He draws a distinction between slavery as a form of work organization -- the aspect that has dominated historical debates -- and slavery as a set of property rights. Slave-based commerce remained central to the eighteenth-century rise of the Atlantic economy, not because slave plantations were superior as a method of organizing production, but because slaves could be put to work on sugar plantations that could not have attracted free labor on economically viable terms. Gavin Wright is William Robertson Coe Professor in American Economic History at Stanford University and the author of The Political Economy of the Cotton South and Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy since the Civil War, winner of the Frank L. and Harriet C. Owsley Award of the Southern Historical Association. He has served as president of the Economic History Association and the Agricultural History Society.