Modern State Emerging in the Middle East: From Historical Sociology Lenses

Abstract

In the plethora of countries of the Middle East, the entity that nowadays is known as the modern state seriously is different from the primary pattern that has been shaped within more than three centuries in West Europe. One of the signs of the modern state is the exclusive use of physical force by the political authority; this point in the European pattern was formed by the process of bargaining between social forces and statesmen. While the active social forces in the modern Middle East had so little role in institutionalizing physical forces in the state’s hands. Now, the matter is that why the state-making process and consolidating procedure of state exclusive on the physical forces in the mentioned regions (West Europe and the Middle East) had a different history. It seems the role of international actors in shaping the Middle East modern state has caused that most part of the regional states is relied on despotic power rather than infrastructure power. The first is focused on social trends and the latter is based on coercion. This work intends alongside pointing to the rival perspectives on the emerging modern state within Historical Sociology as an analytical framework, to study the roots of the emerging modern state in the current Middle East behind the Historical Sociology of International Relations (HSIR) lenses.

Keywords

• modern state
• middle east
• historical sociology
• physical forces
• international