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War and state capacity in the long nineteenth century

Goenaga, Agustín LU ; Sabaté Domingo, Oriol LU and Teorell, Jan LU orcid (2018) In STANCE Working Paper Series 2018(6). p.1-65
Abstract
A great deal of literature has analyzed the relationship between warfare and state capacity in late-modern and contemporary times. While there is a consensus regarding the significant impact of mass warfare on fiscal expansion during the twentieth century, the interplay between warfare and fiscal capacity in the nineteenth century remains disputed. This paper sheds light on this issue by making use of novel datasets of international and civil wars and public finance from 1816 to 1913 in Europe and the Americas. Our results suggest that the type of wars that states fought in the nineteenth century mattered less than their intensity and duration. Public revenues increased in the aftermath of both international and civil wars when they were... (More)
A great deal of literature has analyzed the relationship between warfare and state capacity in late-modern and contemporary times. While there is a consensus regarding the significant impact of mass warfare on fiscal expansion during the twentieth century, the interplay between warfare and fiscal capacity in the nineteenth century remains disputed. This paper sheds light on this issue by making use of novel datasets of international and civil wars and public finance from 1816 to 1913 in Europe and the Americas. Our results suggest that the type of wars that states fought in the nineteenth century mattered less than their intensity and duration. Public revenues increased in the aftermath of both international and civil wars when they were intensive enough. We argue, however, that overall wars had a weak effect on state-making in the nineteenth century precisely due to their limited intensity and duration compared to the total wars of the twentieth century.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
War, State capacity, Long Nineteenth Century
in
STANCE Working Paper Series
volume
2018
issue
6
pages
65 pages
publisher
Department of Political Science, Lund University
project
State-Making and the Origins of Global Order in the Long Nineteenth Century and Beyond
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
f6b0a769-efdc-4bad-8a84-f352ee250841
date added to LUP
2018-09-17 15:45:34
date last changed
2021-03-22 15:42:59
@misc{f6b0a769-efdc-4bad-8a84-f352ee250841,
  abstract     = {{A great deal of literature has analyzed the relationship between warfare and state capacity in late-modern and contemporary times. While there is a consensus regarding the significant impact of mass warfare on fiscal expansion during the twentieth century, the interplay between warfare and fiscal capacity in the nineteenth century remains disputed. This paper sheds light on this issue by making use of novel datasets of international and civil wars and public finance from 1816 to 1913 in Europe and the Americas. Our results suggest that the type of wars that states fought in the nineteenth century mattered less than their intensity and duration. Public revenues increased in the aftermath of both international and civil wars when they were intensive enough. We argue, however, that overall wars had a weak effect on state-making in the nineteenth century precisely due to their limited intensity and duration compared to the total wars of the twentieth century.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Goenaga, Agustín and Sabaté Domingo, Oriol and Teorell, Jan}},
  keywords     = {{War; State capacity; Long Nineteenth Century}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{1--65}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Political Science, Lund University}},
  series       = {{STANCE Working Paper Series}},
  title        = {{War and state capacity in the long nineteenth century}},
  volume       = {{2018}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}