Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (review)

If globalization ultimately diminishes the importance of states as institutions, the bureaucratic capabilities and institutional conditions created by states themselves will be the reason. Such is the central argument of Sassen's important new book. Whereas most scholars focus on the ways in which globalization has diminished the importance of the state, Sassen instead emphasizes that state institutions play an essential role in enabling the process of globalization to unfold. Sassen identifies two key aspects of globalization—the creation of formal global institutions and the emergence of multifaceted transnational networks—arguing that these institutions and processes are actually facilitated by existing institutional conditions embedded in the state system.

Sassen's methodological approach involves the use of the comparative method to examine a set of "transhistorical" variables in different periods to carry out what she calls an exploration of history "as a series of natural experiments" (404). Her goal is to identify factors that contribute to dramatic shifts in the organization of global systems. Sassen examines three key components of social and political organization common to almost all historical periods and cultural settings—territory, authority, and rights. She explores how these three variables are constituted in different historical contexts in an effort to identify the processes by which dominant institutional arrangements are transformed. By focusing on territory, authority, and rights, Sassen seeks to complicate our assumptions about the relationship between states and globalization. Sassen treats "the nation" as a crucial point of departure by examining the way in which different political assemblages across time and space institutionalize the organization of territory, governing authority, and political membership.

In Part 1, Sassen examines the processes that led to the national organization of territory, authority, and rights beginning in the medieval period. Although the state system that ultimately emerged is profoundly different from the medieval assemblages of territory, authority, and rights, she traces the features of the state system to institutional capabilities present in medieval political and social organization. She explores two cases in detail, the French Capetian state and the British state during the emergence of industrial capitalism, to elucidate the emergence of the modern state system. Part 2 explores the denationalization of global systems during the current era of globalization with a particular focus on the United States in the post–World War II period. Although the institutional arrangements that are now emerging represent a dramatic transformation, Sassen traces their development to capabilities inherent to the state system itself. In Part 3, Sassen focuses on the digital aspects of the new institutional arrangements that are emerging during the current era of globalization.

Sassen has produced an ambitious and rich multidisciplinary investigation of globalization. She draws on an impressive range of knowledge in a wide array of disciplines, including sociology, political theory, law, comparative politics, political geography, history, and economics. The book provides a unique and provocative interpretation of both historical and contemporary processes of transformation in global systems. The density of her subject and the weightiness of her prose make it a challenging read. Nevertheless, the book demonstrates an impressive interdisciplinarity and has significant scholarly value. It should be widely read and discussed by scholars in a range of disciplines.