Seapower and socioeconomic change

摘要

The present essay examines the concepts of path dependence and change of political and economic regimes. Starting from the debate of the influence of the so called military revolution on the emergence of modern states, the neglected aspect of the influence of seapower on socioeconomic change is presented, using a formal model. It is maintained that the choice of seapower by a state leads to a different regime than the choice of land military power, because sustainable seapower necessitates a wide alliance of interests, which brings with it more democratic regimes, develops new more efficient and complex forms of organizations, requires the acquisition and diffusion of new knowledge and expertise, which brings with it institutional change and economic growth. The essay concludes with a short presentation of the United Provinces' (the Dutch Republic) turn to the sea. Nicholas Kyriazis earned his Ph.D. in Economics at Bonn University and has been a Visiting Scholar at the Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. He is currently Associate Professor at the Economics Department, University of Thessaly, Central Greece. He has published, among other books, five books on economics and defense (3 in Greek), among them US-EC Monetary Relations (1986) published in the Economic Series of the Directorate General of research of the European Parliament. He is co-editor of Navies and State Foundation (forthcoming 2006). He has contributed articles to the European Journal of Law and Economics (4, the most recent “Is the European union an Optimal Tax Area?”, forthcoming in Vol. 21, 2006), European Law Review, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Kredit and Kapital, Journal of Applied Business Research, Archives of Economic History, Revue du Marche Commun.