The Comparative Politics of Colonialism and Its Legacies: An Introduction*

• Author: Alexander De Juan,Jan Henryk Pierskalla
• Published date: 01 June 2017
• Date: 01 June 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0032329217704434
• Subject Matter: Introduction to the Special Issue

https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329217704434

Politics & Society

2017, Vol. 45(2) 159 –172

© 2017 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/0032329217704434

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Introduction to the Special Issue

The Comparative Politics

of Colonialism and Its

Legacies: An Introduction*

Alexander De Juan

GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies and the University of Konstanz

Jan Henryk Pierskalla

The Ohio State University

Abstract

What are the causes and consequences of colonial rule? This introduction to the

special issue “Comparative Politics of Colonialism and Its Legacies” surveys recent

literature in political science, sociology, and economics that addresses colonial state

building and colonial legacies. Past research has made important contributions to our

understanding of colonialism’s long-term effects on political, social, and economic

development. Existing work emphasizes the role of critical junctures and institutions

in understanding the transmission of those effects to present-day outcomes and

embraces the idea of design-based inference for empirical analysis. The four articles

of this special issue add to existing research but also represent new research

trends: increased attention to (1) the internal dynamics of colonial intervention;

(2) noninstitutional transmission mechanisms; (3) the role of context conditions at

times of colonial intervention; and (4) a finer-grained disaggregation of outcomes,

explanatory factors, and units of analysis.

Keywords

colonialism, historical legacies, economic development, democratization, state building

Corresponding Author:

Jan Henryk Pierskalla, Department of Political Science, The Ohio State University, 2147 Derby Hall, 154

N Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.

Email: pierskalla.4@osu.edu

*This special issue of Politics & Society titled “The Comparative Politics of Colonialism and Its Legacies”

features an introduction and four papers that were presented as part of a workshop held at The Ohio

State University, April 2016, organized by Marcus Kurtz and Jan Henryk Pierskalla.

704434PASXXX10.1177/0032329217704434Politics & SocietyDe Juan and Pierskalla

research-article2017