Dissertation
Compliance and state-building: U.S.-imposed institutions in the Philippine colonial state
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
12/2008
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005886
Abstract
This project extends Amitai Etzioni's compliance theory of complex organizations to the colonial state-building efforts by the United States in the Philippines from 1898 to World War II. The compliance theory gives a compelling prediction of the relationship between institutions and subject peoples, helping to explain why institutions matter in nation-building missions. There is an "occupier's dilemma" consisting of the need of the occupying entity to gain a sense of support for state institutions which are imposed through force on a populace. Yet, the use of coercive force in the course of imposing institutions undermines the ability to gain this support. The American experience in the Philippines represents a case of this dynamic which is overlooked in recent research on nation-building. The Philippine case reveals that the construction of state institutions did in fact help to mitigate violent conflict in society, as institutional theories predict. However, institutions alone were not sufficient to lead to society-wide consensus or stability over a reasonably long period of time. In the Philippines, conflict migrated from the battlefield to the legislative arena; in spite of this transition, the legitimacy of U.S. rule did not cement within the Philippine Islands. For this reason, approaches to the study of nation-building should reflect both the nature of institutions' interaction with society as well as the other known components of nation-building. Adding a layer of understanding to institutional theories of nation-building leads to an increase in the knowledge regarding the nation-building dynamic in cases where the institutions are imposed from without
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Details
- Title
- Compliance and state-building
- Creators
- Daniel R. Allen
- Contributors
- Martha L. Cottam (Chair)John Thomas Preston (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, School ofLance LeLoup (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 181
- Identifiers
- 99901055037501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation