Research Catalog

Title

The evolution of a nation : how geography and law shaped the American states / Daniel Berkowitz and Karen B. Clay.

Author

Berkowitz, Daniel.

Publication

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, ©2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Clay, Karen

Description

x, 234 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm.

Summary

Although political and legal institutions are essential to any nation's economic development, the forces that have shaped these institutions are poorly understood. Drawing on rich evidence about the development of the American states from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century, this book documents the mechanisms through which geographical and historical conditions--such as climate, access to water transportation, and early legal systems--impacted political and judicial institutions and economic growth. The book shows how a state's geography and climate influenced whether elites based their wealth in agriculture or trade. States with more occupationally diverse elites in 1860 had greater levels of political competition in their legislature from 1866 to 2000. The book also examines the effects of early legal systems. Because of their colonial history, thirteen states had an operational civil-law legal system prior to statehood. All of these states except Louisiana would later adopt common law. By the late eighteenth century, the two legal systems differed in their balances of power. In civil-law systems, judiciaries were subordinate to legislatures, whereas in common-law states exhibit persistent differences in the structure of their courts, the retention of judges, and judicial budgets. Moreover, changes in court structures, retention procedures, and budgets occur under very different conditions in civil-law and common-law states.

Series Statement

The Princeton economic history of the western world

Uniform Title

Princeton economic history of the Western world.

Subjects

• Law > United States > States > History
• U.S. states > Politics and government
• U.S. states > Economic conditions
• State governments > United States > History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-221) and index.

Contents

Legal initial conditions -- Initial conditions and state political competition -- The mechanism -- State courts -- Legislatures and courts -- Institutions and outcomes.

Call Number

JFE 15-176

ISBN

• 9780691136042 (hardcover : alk. paper)
• 0691136041 (hardcover : alk. paper)

LCCN

2011014585

OCLC

711643698

Author

Berkowitz, Daniel.

Title

The evolution of a nation : how geography and law shaped the American states / Daniel Berkowitz and Karen B. Clay.

Imprint

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, ©2012.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

The Princeton economic history of the western world

Princeton economic history of the Western world.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-221) and index.

Connect to:

Table of contents

Table of contents.

Added Author

Clay, Karen

Research Call Number

JFE 15-176