Inward Conquest The Political Origins of Modern Public Services

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, modern states began to provide many of the public services we now take for granted. Inward Conquest presents the first comprehensive analysis of the political origins of modern public services during this period. Ansell and Lindvall show how struggles among political parties and religious groups shaped the structure of diverse yet crucially important public services, including policing, schooling, and public health. Liberals, Catholics, conservatives, socialists, and fascists all fought bitterly over both the provision and political control of public services, with profound consequences for contemporary political developments. Integrating data on the historical development of public order, education, and public health with novel measures on the ideological orientation of governments, the authors provide a wealth of new evidence on a missing link in the history of the modern state.

Part I. A Revolution in Government: 1. Two cities; 2. Public services; Part II. Order: 3. The police; 4. Prisons; Part III. Knowledge: 5. Schools; 6. Libraries; Part IV. Health: 7. Asylums; 8. Vaccinations; 9. Midwifery; Part V. The Origins of Public Services: 10. Conclusions.

Ben W. Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Nuffield College. He works on the political economy of education, inequality, and wealth. Co-authored with David Samuels, his book Inequality and Democratization: An Elite-Competition Approach won the 2014 Woodrow Wilson award for best book in political science. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and co-editor of Comparative Political Studies.
Johannes Lindvall is Professor of Political Science, Lund University. He works on comparative politics, especially political institutions, public policy, and political economy. He led the European Research Council project Reform Capacity, and has published in World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Politics, and the American Political Science Review.