Axtmann, Roland
(1991)
Geopolitics and internal power structures: The state, police and public order in Austria and Ireland in the late 18th century.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
In this thesis I contribute to the sociological discussion on the impact of geopolitical constellations on the class and cleavage structure of societies. The main concern is to analyse how the capacity of collective social actors to pursue their interests against other antagonistic collective actors can be impeded, or increased, by relations of violence between the state in which they operate and foreign states. This problem is developed in a first step by a review of the sociological literature on the formation of the modern state in Western Europe. A close scrutiny of the explanatory strengths and weaknesses of both the 'society-centred' and the 'state-centred' approaches leads to the conclusion that an adequate analysis of political structural change in Western Europe has to emphasize the dynamic interplay of political, cultural, economic and geopolitical structures of social action. In the two case studies on Austria and Ireland in the 18th century, I discuss the interaction between class, political, regional/colonial, and ideological power groupings and economic, ideological, political and geopolitical interests. I show how the conflict structures of both Austria and Ireland gained momentum due to geopolitical constellations. I analyse how the attempts of the Austrian and the Irish state to establish police forces under their own exclusive control and to maintain public order were related to geopolitics. In order to explain the power capacity of these two states I analyse the effect of geopolitics on the distribution of power within the respective society.
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