The course consists of two parts.
Part I focuses upon different aspects of European state building ranging from finance and law to the growth of the bureaucratic apparatus and development of the “common good” theories. The author seeks to reveal the inner logic of this process and to delineate the general pattern of an emerging modern state. Valuable explanatory schemes as well as rich empiric material for such a synthesis have been provided by dozens of round-tables and edited collections, which appeared as an outcome of two important academic projects, La genèse de l’État moderne, supported by C.N.R.S. (France), and Origins of the Modern State, supported by European Science Foundation.
Part II examines the limits of the outlined pattern and highlights varieties of state building across Europe. The author tests the applicability of this model to Eastern Europe, including Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Muscovy, as well as the Ottoman Empire. Instead of more traditional linear vision of historical process, the adopted approach presupposes multiple modernities and takes into account cross influences and cultural transfers.
Participation in seminars and discussions of the recommended literature provides 30% of the overall grade. Passing mid-term colloquium will give students another 30% and final term paper (5 pages min.) the last 40% of the grade.
Selected bibliography (basic reading):
1. Wim Blockmans, Jean-Philippe Genet, Christoph Muhlberg, “The Origin of the Modern State”, L’État moderne: genèse. Bilans et perspectives: Actes du Colloque tenu au CNRS à Paris les 19 – 20 septembre 1989 édités par Jean-Philippe Genet. (Paris : Éditions du C.N.R.S., 1990), pp. 285 – 303.
2. Peter Blickle (ed.), Resistance, Representation, and Community (Oxford University Press, 1997).
3. Richard Bonney (ed.), Economic Systems and State Finance (Oxford University Press, 1995).
4. Richard Bonney (ed.), The Rise of the Fiscal State in Europe, c. 1200 – 1815 (Oxford University Press, 1999).
5. Philippe Contamine (ed.), War and Competition between States (Oxford University Press, 2000).
6. Thomas Ertman, Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 1997).
7. Philip S. Gorski, “Beyond Marx and Hintze? Third-Wave Theories of Early Modern State Formation”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 43, no. 4 (October 2001), pp. 851 – 861.
8. Antonio Padoa-Schioppa (ed.), Legislation and Justice (Oxford University Press, 1997).
9. Wolfgang Reinhard (ed.), Power Elites and State Building (Oxford University Press, 1996).
10. J. H. Shennan, The Origins of the Modern European State 1450 – 1725 (Hutchinson University Library: London, 1974).
11. Joseph R. Strayer, On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State (Princeton University Press, 1970).
12. Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990 – 1992 (Blackwell: Cambridge, MA; Oxford, 1992).
