ABSTRACT
This chapter interrogates the Great Divide between the domestic and international domains with reference to the (sub)disciplines of comparative politics and international relations/international political economy (IR/IPE). It seeks to account for the dominant conceptualisation of the modern world, arguing that it is the strength of the grand narrative or metahistory of (capitalist) 'modernity' and 'modernisation' that has both explicitly and, more often, implicitly, guided social scientific enquiry, including understanding and analyses of democracy and democratisation. The chapter turns to a critique of the ontological primacy ascribed to the state, arguing that crudely state-centric analysis de-historicises the state, illicitly naturalises the social relations of the capitalist order and promulgates an ideological form of social authority. It argues that the state lies at the heart of the 'new' informal imperial order, providing in both imperial and subordinate political-economies the essential conditions of accumulation for global capital. The chapter concludes with a short discussion of globalisation, imperialism and the state.
