Sources

Author of War and the State in Africa

Jeffrey Herbst

War and the State in Africa (Herbst) — Central Argument

The distinct challenges of warfare, low population density, and territorial control shaped African state formation differently than the European experience.

Author of The New Religious State

Mark Juergensmeyer

The New Religious State (Juergensmeyer) — Core Subject

The emergence of political systems that blend religious authority and state power to serve as alternatives to the modern secular nation-state.

Author of Diversionary Nationalism: Economic Inequality and the Formation of National Pride

Michael Solt

Diversionary Nationalism (Solt) — Core Concept

The dynamic where economic inequality encourages heightened national pride, effectively shifting public focus away from domestic economic and class disparities.

Authors of Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War

James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin

Determinants of Insurgency (Fearon & Laitin)

Structural conditions that render rebellion feasible—such as state weakness, political instability, and rough terrain—rather than ethnic or cultural diversity alone.

Author of The Clash of Civilizations

Samuel P. Huntington

The Clash of Civilizations (Huntington) — Central Thesis

In the post-Cold War world, primary sources of international conflict occur along cultural and religious boundaries separating distinct civilizations.

Author of Civilizational Imprisonments: How to Misunderstand Everybody in the World

Amartya Sen

Critique of Civilizational Categorization (Sen)

It mistakenly reduces individuals to a single, rigid cultural or civilizational category, neglecting their multiple overlapping identities, affiliations, and personal agency.

Author of Constitutional Choices for New Democracies

Arend Lijphart

Institutional Comparison in New Democracies (Lijphart)

An evaluation of majoritarian versus consensus-oriented democratic frameworks, analyzing how electoral rules and power-sharing structures accommodate divided societies.

Author of The Myth of the Rational Voter

Bryan Caplan

The Rational Voter Problem (Caplan)

Voters routinely harbor systematic political and economic biases because the personal cost of holding inaccurate beliefs in politics is negligible.

Author of Economic Development and Democracy

Seymour Martin Lipset

Modernization Hypothesis (Lipset)

Higher levels of socioeconomic development correlate positively with the likelihood that a democratic system will both emerge and endure.

Author of Turning In, Turning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America

Robert D. Putnam

Social Capital (Putnam) — Definition

The civic networks, norms of reciprocity, and social trust that facilitate coordination and collective action for mutual benefit.