# War and State Development
Professor Brenton Kenkel

“War made the state, and the state made war.”  
—Charles Tilly, 1975

In this course, we will examine how war has affected the development of
major political and economic institutions. We will work through
theoretical models of war’s role in state development, and we will use
historical and statistical evidence to evaluate the explanatory power of
these models.

Some key challenges will arise repeatedly throughout the semester. How
can we establish cause-and-effect relationships when we cannot run
randomized experiments and must rely solely on historical evidence? And
even if we establish that war shaped a specific institutional
development in a specific state, how much can we generalize to other
times and places? We will learn how to address questions like these.

## General information

**Place and time.** We meet on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:20–3:45 in
Alumni Hall 201.

**Contact.** You can email me at <brenton.kenkel@gmail.com>. I try to
respond to all student questions within one business day.

**Office hours and meetings.** My office hours are on Tuesdays from
2:00–3:30pm in Commons Center 326. You don’t need to make an appointment
— just show up during my office hours. If you have a question but can’t
meet during my office hours, email me first. From there we can decide if
we can work out the issue over email or if we need to meet.

**Teaching assistant.** The TA for War and State Development is Seungho
Song. You can email him at <seung.ho.song@vanderbilt.edu>. His office
hours are on Fridays from 3:00–4:30pm in Commons 317.

## Grading

**Daily reading quizzes (20%).** Each class session will begin with a
brief quiz about the content of that day’s readings. These quizzes are
designed to ensure you have absorbed the main argument of the readings —
no trivia or gotcha questions. Your four lowest quiz scores, including
any quizzes that you miss, will be dropped before calculating your final
grade.

**Exams (15% midterm, 20% final).** There will be an in-class midterm
and final exam. Each exam will be evenly divided between short answer
questions and a longer-format essay. Exams are open-notes, but you will
need to print those notes — no electronic devices during exams. The
final exam will be cumulative.

**Research project (5% proposal, 15% first draft, 25% final draft).**
Outside of class, you will complete a research project that advances a
theoretical argument about the effects of warfare on some aspect of
state development, then uses historical evidence to test that argument.
The theoretical argument may (and in fact should) draw on the course
readings, but should also be a product of your own original thought. The
empirical test should take one of the following forms:

- *Process tracing.* Focus on a single historical case. Evaluate not
  only whether the theoretical predictions are borne out, but also
  whether there is direct evidence for the precise causal mechanisms
  underlying the theory.

- *Case comparison.* Focus on a small number (2–4) of historical cases
  that differ in the extent or nature of the state’s involvement in
  warfare. Evaluate whether the theoretical predictions are borne out,
  and whether the theory provides the best explanation of differences in
  developments across the cases.

- *Quantitative data analysis.* Follow the logic of the theory to yield
  a couple of hypotheses that can be tested at scale. Obtain systematic
  data on a larger number of historical cases, then perform statistical
  tests to evaluate the hypotheses. You can only choose this option if
  you have taken (or are taking) PSCI 2270, PSCI 2300, PSCI 2301, or a
  similar quantitative methods course providing the necessary background
  in data wrangling and statistical analysis.

On February 13, you will turn in a 2–3 page <u>proposal</u> for the
research project. This proposal will outline the theoretical argument
you intend to advance, the method of testing you intend to employ
(including the selection of cases/data), and a list of sources you plan
to consult in your research.

On March 20, you will turn in a complete <u>first draft</u> of the final
research project. This draft will be graded along with detailed
feedback, including specific suggestions for changes and additions to
make in the final version.

The <u>final draft</u>, due April 17, should be roughly 15 pages, though
there is no hard lower or upper bound. You will turn this in alongside a
memo summarizing the changes you have made since the first draft, giving
specific details on how you have incorporated or responded to the
suggested changes. The paper itself will count for 20% of your course
grade, and the accompanying memo will count for 5%.

You may use generative AI tools like ChatGPT however you please in
conducting each stage of the research project. I suspect that if you try
to just have AI write the entire paper for you, it will make things up
and it will make weak arguments, and you will not do well on the
assignment. We will spend some time talking in class about better and
worse uses of generative AI when conducting social science research.

**Extra credit.** There will be two opportunities for extra credit. One
will involve your personal participation in a research study with the
RIPS Lab. The other will involve collective participation in the
end-of-semester course evaluations. I will tell you more about these at
the appropriate times.

## Schedule

All readings will be available on Brightspace. For each reading, I’ll
provide a reading guide with questions to help walk you through the
reading and extract the most important information.

**Revised syllabus, March 30, 2026.**

| Topic | Date | Reading |
|----|----|----|
| Intro to the course | Mon Jan 5 | No readings |
|  |  |  |
| The sovereign state | Wed Jan 7 | Spruyt (1994) |
|  | Mon Jan 12 | Olson (1993) |
|  | Wed Jan 14 | Sánchez De La Sierra (2020) |
|  | Mon Jan 19 | *No class — MLK Day* |
|  |  |  |
| Territorial control | Wed Jan 21 | Tilly (1990), ch. 3 |
|  | Mon Jan 26 | *Cancelled* |
|  | Wed Jan 28 | *Cancelled* |
|  | Mon Feb 2 | Abramson (2017) |
|  | Wed Feb 4 | Thies (2005) |
|  | Mon Feb 9 | Dincecco and Wang (2018) |
|  |  |  |
|  | Wed Feb 11 | Proposal writing workshop |
|  |  |  |
| Raising revenue | Mon Feb 16 | Levi (1988), ch. 2 |
|  | Wed Feb 18 | Karaman and Pamuk (2013) |
|  | Fri Feb 20 | **Research proposal due** |
|  | Mon Feb 23 | Queralt (2019) |
|  |  |  |
| Parliaments | Wed Feb 25 | Kenkel and Paine (2023) |
|  | Mon Mar 2 | **Midterm exam** |
|  | Wed Mar 4 | Cox et al. (2023) |
|  |  |  |
|  | Mon Mar 9 | *No class — spring break* |
|  | Wed Mar 11 | *No class — spring break* |
|  |  |  |
| Democratization | Mon Mar 16 | Acemoglu and Robinson (2000) |
|  | Wed Mar 18 | Przeworski (2009) |
|  | Fri Mar 20 | **First draft of research paper due** |
|  | Mon Mar 23 | Blattman (2009) |
|  |  |  |
| Nationalism | Wed Mar 25 | Anderson (1983), ch. 1-2 |
|  | Mon Mar 30 | Sambanis et al. (2015) |
|  | Wed Apr 1 | Darden and Mylonas (2016) |
|  |  |  |
|  | Mon Apr 6 | Final paper consultations |
|  | Wed Apr 8 | Final paper consultations |
|  |  |  |
| Bureaucracy | Mon Apr 13 | Brewer (1988), ch. 3-4 |
|  | Wed Apr 15 | Chen (2023) |
|  |  |  |
|  | Fri Apr 17 | **Final research paper + revision memo due** |
|  | Mon Apr 20 | Final exam review |
|  | Thur Apr 23 | **Final exam** |

## References

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Abramson, Scott F. 2017. “The Economic Origins of the Territorial
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