Relative Political Capacity: Political Extraction and Political Reach

This chapter shows a number of questions about the relation between political capacity, domestic conflict, and patterns of socioeconomic and demographic change that are instumental in the process of political development. It expects that there is a relation between the level of economic development and the potential for increasing political capacity. The chapter suggests that under stress political goals take precedence over economic priorities, as governments facing external or internal threats sacrifice economic stability to maintain their political standing. Clearly governments are not totally independent active agents, but are constrained by the mandate of key stakeholders. Relative political extraction centers on material resources and gauges the flexibility of the government in gathering revenues required to implement a desired policy. The chapter also shows that in total war extraction and reach are maximized with the unique goal of preserving the political structures, regardless of economic implications.