New Books
- The Legacies of Law: Long-Run Consequences of Legal Development in South Africa, 1652–2000
This highly original book examines the function of legal norms and institutions in the transition to—and from—apartheid. The Legacies of Law sheds light on the neglected relationship between path dependence and the law. Meierhenrich demonstrates that legal norms and institutions, even illiberal ones, can have an important—and hitherto undertheorized—structuring effect on democratic transitions. Focusing on South Africa during the period 1650–2000, Meierhenrich finds that under certain conditions, law reduces uncertainty in democratization by invoking common cultural backgrounds and experiences. The Legacies of Law demonstrates that in instances in which interacting adversaries share qua law reasonably convergent mental models, transitions from authoritarian rule are less intractable. Meierhenrich’s careful longitudinal analysis of the evolution of law (and its effects) in South Africa, compared with a short study of Chile from 1830 to 1990, shows how, and when, legal norms and institutions serve as historical parameters to both democratic and undemocratic rule. By so doing, The Legacies of Law contributes new and unexpected insights—both theoretical and applied—to contemporary debates about democracy and the rule of law. Among other things, Meierhenrich significantly advances our understanding of “hybrid regimes” in the international system and generates important policy-relevant insights into the politics of law and courts in authoritarian regimes.
(Cambridge University Press, 2008)
Weatherhead Center Faculty Associate Jens Meierhenrich is assistant professor of government and of social studies in the Department of Government. He also co-chairs the Weatherhead Center’s International Law and International Relations Seminar.
- American Empire and the Politics of Meaning: Power, Culture, and U.S. Colonialism in Puerto Rico and the Philippines
When the United States took control of the Philippines and Puerto Rico in the wake of the Spanish- American War, it declared that it would transform its new colonies through lessons in self-government and the ways of Americanstyle democracy. In both territories, U.S. colonial officials built extensive public school systems, and they set up American-style elections and governmental institutions. The officials aimed their lessons in democratic government at the political elite: the relatively small class of the wealthy, educated, and politically powerful within each colony. While they retained ultimate control for themselves, the Americans let the elite vote, hold local office, and formulate legislation in national assemblies. American Empire and the Politics of Meaning is an examination of how these efforts played out on the ground in the early years of American colonial rule, from 1898 until 1912. It is the first systematic comparative analysis of these early exercises in American imperial power.
(Duke University Press, 2008)
Julian Go was an Academy Scholar (2001–2003) with the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies at the Weatherhead Center. He is currently assistant professor of sociology at Boston University.
- Welfare and Capitalism in Postwar Japan
This book explains how postwar Japan managed to achieve a highly egalitarian form of capitalism despite meager social spending. Estévez-Abe shows how Japan’s electoral system generated incentives that led political actors to protect, if only for their own selfinterest, various groups that lost out in market competition. She explains how Japan’s postwar welfare state relied upon various alternatives to orthodox social spending programs. By developing an institutional, rational-choice model, Estévez-Abe shows how the current electoral system renders obsolete the old form of social protection. She argues that institutionally Japan now resembles Britain and predicts that Japan’s welfare system will also come to resemble that of Britain. Japan thus faces a more market-oriented society and less equality.
(Cambridge University Press, 2008)
Weatherhead Center Faculty Associate Margarita Estévez-Abe is Paul Sack Associate Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Government. She was also a Weatherhead Initiative grant recipient in 2004.