This paper is divided into five parts. In the first section some of the methodological
questions relevant to comparative historical analyses of political and social phenomena
will be examined in the context of the impact of the three examples of Norman invasions.
This will include a discussion of the frameworks supplied by the critical juncture and
reactive sequence literature in examining the development and survival of institutions
along lines reflecting path dependency model. It will also include a review of some of the
significant aspects of sequences and political community.
The second, third and fourth sections will concentrate on the three case studies
themselves. In the second section the main emphasis will be on the historical data
relating to the invasions in each region. This will include an examination of the pre and
post conquest institutions and societies with references to nature of the political
community and authority framework established in the aftermath of the conquest. The
third section will examine the developments in the aftermath of each invasion and the
effect this had on institutions, political community and structures of authority. The fourth
section will provide a more comparative framework for these historical case studies and
some implications for developments in the period after 1300 in each region. The final
section will attempt to summarize these developments and implications for further studies
on the issues examined in the earlier sections.
Robert Putnam in Making Democracy Work indicates that one answer to the question of
the differences between democracy and social capital in northern and southern Italy lay in
the differences in the historical paths of northern and southern Italy.
A major factor he
1
For a good overview of the approaches to the study of comparative historical analysis see James Mahoney
and Dietrich Rueschemeyer (eds.), Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003. See also Paul Pierson, Politics in Time, Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2004; Sven Steinmo, Kathleen Thelen and Frank Longstreth (eds.), Structuring Politics: Historical
Institutionalism in Comparative Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. An earlier article
that has helped shape my approaches to these issues is Stephen Krasner, “Approaches to the State:
Alternative Conceptions and Historical Dynamics,” Comparative Politics 16 (2) 1984; see also Gretchen M.
MacMillan, State, Society and Authority: The Foundations of the Modern Irish State, Dublin: Gill and
Macmillan, 1993.
2
Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1994.
3
Convention