Melissa M Lee
Biographic Data
| ID | 4372368 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Melissa M Lee |
| GIVEN NAMES | Melissa M |
| FAMILY NAME | Lee |
| SIGNATURE | LEE M M |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 216 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 7 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Why Territorial Disputes Escalate
Although attempts to conquer entire states became rare after 1945, attempts to conquer small pieces of territory persisted. Why do states so often seize—and even fight wars over—remarkably small areas? We argue that traditional explanations predicated on the material or ethnic value of disputed territories largely cannot explain the escalation of territorial disputes since 1945. Instead, actors more often seize territory to be seen seizing it. We…
International Statebuilding and the Domestic Politics of State Development
Managing the threat of violence remains a central concern in international security and development. International actors seek to terminate civil wars and prevent conflict recurrence by building peace and strengthening state institutions. In this article, I review the scholarship on international statebuilding, defined broadly as external efforts to create, strengthen, reform, and transform the authority structures of the state. Much of this lite…
Crippling Leviathan
Policymakers worry that “ungoverned spaces” pose dangers to security and development. Why do such spaces exist beyond the authority of the state? Earlier scholarship—which addressed this question with a list of domestic failures—overlooked the crucial role that international politics play. This book argues that foreign subversion undermines state authority and promotes ungoverned space. Enemy governments empower insurgents to destabilize the stat…
Literacy and State–Society Interactions in Nineteenth‐Century France
Modern states are distinguished by the breadth and depth of public regulation over private affairs. This aspect of state capacity and state power is predicated on frequent and dense encounters between the state and the population it seeks to control. We argue that literacy in the language of state administration facilitates state–society interaction by lowering the transaction costs of those encounters. We support this claim with evidence drawing…
The International Politics of Incomplete Sovereignty
Why do some countries fail to govern their territory? Incomplete domestic sovereignty, defined as the absence of effective state authority over territory, has severe consequences in terms of security, order, economic growth, and human well-being. These negative consequences raise the question of why such spaces remain without effective authority. While the international relations literature suggests that state weakness persists because of an abse…
Legibility and the Informational Foundations of State Capacity
Recent research in political science has stressed the importance of the state in curbing violence and promoting social and economic development, resulting in an explosion of scholarly interest in the foundations of state capacity. This article argues that state capacity depends in part on "legibility"—the breadth and depth of the state's knowledge about its citizens and their activities—and that legibility is crucial to effective, centralized gov…
Taking the State (Back) Out? Statehood and the Delivery of Collective Goods
State‐building is a central tenet of many current development efforts. This primacy of the state rests on a global normative script that emphasizes the role of the modern state in providing collective goods and services from security to education to health. We analyze state performance in six dimensions of service delivery in a cross‐sectional sample of more than 150 countries. In addition to exploring the explanatory power of statehood, we exami…
Legibility and the Informational Foundations of State Capacity
Recent research in political science has stressed the importance of the state in curbing violence and promoting social and economic development, resulting in an explosion of scholarly interest in the foundations of state capacity. This article argues that state capacity depends in part on "legibility"—the breadth and depth of the state's knowledge about its citizens and their activities—and that legibility is crucial to effective, centralized gov…
Taking the State (Back) Out? Statehood and the Delivery of Collective Goods
State‐building is a central tenet of many current development efforts. This primacy of the state rests on a global normative script that emphasizes the role of the modern state in providing collective goods and services from security to education to health. We analyze state performance in six dimensions of service delivery in a cross‐sectional sample of more than 150 countries. In addition to exploring the explanatory power of statehood, we exami…
The International Politics of Incomplete Sovereignty
Why do some countries fail to govern their territory? Incomplete domestic sovereignty, defined as the absence of effective state authority over territory, has severe consequences in terms of security, order, economic growth, and human well-being. These negative consequences raise the question of why such spaces remain without effective authority. While the international relations literature suggests that state weakness persists because of an abse…
Literacy and State–Society Interactions in Nineteenth‐Century France
Modern states are distinguished by the breadth and depth of public regulation over private affairs. This aspect of state capacity and state power is predicated on frequent and dense encounters between the state and the population it seeks to control. We argue that literacy in the language of state administration facilitates state–society interaction by lowering the transaction costs of those encounters. We support this claim with evidence drawing…
Why Territorial Disputes Escalate
Although attempts to conquer entire states became rare after 1945, attempts to conquer small pieces of territory persisted. Why do states so often seize—and even fight wars over—remarkably small areas? We argue that traditional explanations predicated on the material or ethnic value of disputed territories largely cannot explain the escalation of territorial disputes since 1945. Instead, actors more often seize territory to be seen seizing it. We…
International Statebuilding and the Domestic Politics of State Development
Managing the threat of violence remains a central concern in international security and development. International actors seek to terminate civil wars and prevent conflict recurrence by building peace and strengthening state institutions. In this article, I review the scholarship on international statebuilding, defined broadly as external efforts to create, strengthen, reform, and transform the authority structures of the state. Much of this lite…
Taking the State (Back) Out? Statehood and the Delivery of Collective Goods
State‐building is a central tenet of many current development efforts. This primacy of the state rests on a global normative script that emphasizes the role of the modern state in providing collective goods and services from security to education to health. We analyze state performance in six dimensions of service delivery in a cross‐sectional sample of more than 150 countries. In addition to exploring the explanatory power of statehood, we exami…
Legibility and the Informational Foundations of State Capacity
Recent research in political science has stressed the importance of the state in curbing violence and promoting social and economic development, resulting in an explosion of scholarly interest in the foundations of state capacity. This article argues that state capacity depends in part on "legibility"—the breadth and depth of the state's knowledge about its citizens and their activities—and that legibility is crucial to effective, centralized gov…
The International Politics of Incomplete Sovereignty
Why do some countries fail to govern their territory? Incomplete domestic sovereignty, defined as the absence of effective state authority over territory, has severe consequences in terms of security, order, economic growth, and human well-being. These negative consequences raise the question of why such spaces remain without effective authority. While the international relations literature suggests that state weakness persists because of an abse…
Crippling Leviathan
Policymakers worry that “ungoverned spaces” pose dangers to security and development. Why do such spaces exist beyond the authority of the state? Earlier scholarship—which addressed this question with a list of domestic failures—overlooked the crucial role that international politics play. This book argues that foreign subversion undermines state authority and promotes ungoverned space. Enemy governments empower insurgents to destabilize the stat…
Literacy and State–Society Interactions in Nineteenth‐Century France
Modern states are distinguished by the breadth and depth of public regulation over private affairs. This aspect of state capacity and state power is predicated on frequent and dense encounters between the state and the population it seeks to control. We argue that literacy in the language of state administration facilitates state–society interaction by lowering the transaction costs of those encounters. We support this claim with evidence drawing…
Why Territorial Disputes Escalate
Although attempts to conquer entire states became rare after 1945, attempts to conquer small pieces of territory persisted. Why do states so often seize—and even fight wars over—remarkably small areas? We argue that traditional explanations predicated on the material or ethnic value of disputed territories largely cannot explain the escalation of territorial disputes since 1945. Instead, actors more often seize territory to be seen seizing it. We…
International Statebuilding and the Domestic Politics of State Development
Managing the threat of violence remains a central concern in international security and development. International actors seek to terminate civil wars and prevent conflict recurrence by building peace and strengthening state institutions. In this article, I review the scholarship on international statebuilding, defined broadly as external efforts to create, strengthen, reform, and transform the authority structures of the state. Much of this lite…
Law (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Political Conflict and Governance (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Political economy (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · State (computer science (5 works) · Economics (4 works) · Business (2 works)