Authors Meet Critics: Acharya and Lee's "The Cartel System of States"

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

In modern times, international borders reflect discontinuous changes in political authority, no matter what the inconveniences are for the individuals that they separate. What explains this fact? Why are the citizens of neighboring regions that happen to lie across an international border often subject to very different governance systems? In their book from Oxford University Press, Avidit Acharya (Stanford University) and Alexander Lee (University of Rochesterargue that the defining feature of the modern territorial state system is the local, bounded, monopoly that states have in governing their citizens. States refuse to violate each other's monopolies, even when they could do so easily. We examine what makes this system stable, when and how it emerged, how it spread, how it has been challenged, what led it to be so resilient over time, and how might it change in the future.

In this session, four distinguished scholars of international relations discuss the book and the consequences of the argument for international relations theory and practice.

See https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-cartel-system-of-states-9780197632260?cc=pk&lang=en& for more details on the book

Sub Unit

• Division 6: Political Economy

Chair

• Henk Erich Goemans University of Rochester

Presenters

• Beth A. Simmons University of Pennsylvania

• James D. Morrow University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• Jack L. Snyder Columbia University

• Avidit R. Acharya Stanford University

• Alexander Lee University of Rochester