Book Project I (Based on Dissertation):
(Under Contract with Cambridge University Press)

The Political Economy of Public Bureaucracy: Socioeconomic Conflict, Imperialism, and the Emergence of Modern Administrative Organizations
(Original Dissertation PDF Download) (Alt. Link)

Recipient of the Honorable Mention for the Ernst B. Haas Dissertation Award
(for the best dissertation in European Politics and Society)

Recipient of the Honorable Mention for the Ronald H. Coase Dissertation Award
(for the best dissertation in Institutional and Organizational Economics)

Abstract: This book examines the historical origins and persistence of modern bureaucracies, challenging Max Weber’s prediction of uniform rationalization across advanced capitalist states. It develops a theoretical framework that connects two dynamics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: domestic socioeconomic class conflicts in autonomous countries and the imperial imposition of administrative systems on colonized territories. During the critical bureaucratic emergence period, three socioeconomic groups – the traditional/landed elites, the middle classes, and urban workers – held profoundly divergent preferences about institutional design, particularly regarding meritocratic recruitment and political control. Thus, their relative political power shaped bureaucratic outcomes that then proved remarkably stable through multiple path dependence mechanisms. Simultaneously, imperial powers imposed their administrative systems on controlled territories to reduce the transaction costs of ruling, creating further lasting legacies. Using both qualitative and quantitative cross-national analyses as well as rigorous causal inference designs, the book demonstrates that these historical processes continue to affect bureaucracies and state-citizen interactions even a century later, with critical implications for current governance and administrative reform.

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Book Project II:
Theory of Competition: Rivalry and Competition in Human Societies and International Relations

Abstract: Competition is a ubiquitous phenomenon. In societies, people compete for status and wealth. In capitalist economies, firms compete for market shares. In democracies, parties compete for votes. In the international realm, countries compete for foreign direct investment, military power, and prestige. Building upon social psychology, this book explores the deep-rooted psychological mechanisms which explain why people compete with each other. A general theory of rivalry and competition is developed and subsequently applied to politics and economics. A comprehensive study of international history, particularly the European international system and its member states in comparison with other world regions, demonstrates how powerful competition as an organizational principle can be.