Charles Tilly’s Elegant Theories About the Origins of European Nation-States, Social Movements, Contentious Politics, and Democracy

The oeuvre of Charles Tilly provides a helpful model of how to conduct social science. Nevertheless, most readers are familiar only with a subset of his works. Consequently, Tilly’s contributions are often understood as being limited to a few hypotheses or statements, often cited out of context or in an over-simplified manner. This article aims to provide a more extensive overview of Tilly’s work and its continued relevance. It introduces some of his key concepts, such as state formation, superior stories, relational realism, trust networks, categorical inequality, contentious politics, and democratization. This article makes a case for a broader application of these concepts in social sciences research, theorizing, and contemporary political analyses.