The emergence of the state in Europe is a topic that has engaged
historians since the establishment of the discipline of history.
Yet the primary focus of has nearly always been to take a top-down
approach, whereby the formation and consolidation of public
institutions is viewed as the outcome of activities by princes and
other social elites. Yet, as the essays in this collection show,
such an approach does not provide a complete picture. By
investigating the importance of local and individual initiatives
that contributed to state building from the late middle ages
through to the nineteenth century, this volume shows how popular
pressure could influence those in power to develop new
institutional structures. By not privileging the role of warfare
and of elite coercion for state building, it is possible to
question the traditional top-down model and explore the degree to
which central agencies might have been more important for state
representation than for state practice. The studies included in
this collection treat many parts of Europe and deal with different
phases in the period between the late middle ages and the
nineteenth century. Beginning with a critical review of state
historiography, the introduction then sets out the concept of
'empowering interactions' which is then explored in the subsequent
case studies and a number of historiographical, methodological and
theoretical essays. Taken as a whole this collection provides a
fascinating platform to reconsider the relationships between
top-down and bottom-up processes in the history of the European
state.
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