Harvard University Fall 1999 Historical Studies A-72 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN STATE Professors Thomas Ertman and Peter A. Hall The object of this course is to examine the configuration of the modern state and the central processes that lie behind its development. It focuses on the cases of Britain, France and Germany and reviews the political history of these nations with particular attention to the course of events at critical moments for state-building, in particular those associated with war, industrialization, democratic revolution, mass enfranchisement and the rise of fascism. From this historical perspective, we can examine the origins of the modern state and compare its form and functioning to those of the political insitutitions that preceded it. We hope that such an inquiry will illuminate features of the modern state that might be taken for granted today. Along with the development of the state the course considers the nature of modern politics and the sorts of factors that lie behind it, such as the development of ideas, the clash of material interests, and the accumulation of institutional forms. Course requirements: The requirements of this course are: 1) an 8-10 page take-home mid-term examination to be handed out in class on October 27 and returned November 1 (30% of the grade); 2) a one-page, double-spaced response to the study questions to be handed in at weekly meetings of the discussion sections (20% of the grade); 3) a three-hour final examination (40% of the grade); 4) participation in weekly discussion sections (10% of the grade). The offices of Professors Ertman (ext. 236) and Hall (ext. 229) are located at the Center for Eurpean Studies, 27 Kirkland Street. Telephone: 495-4303. Note: Books on order at the Coop are marked with an *. All other readings will be included in the sourcebook. All readings are also on reserve at Lamont and Hilles. SCHEDULE OF LECTURES AND READINGS I. INTRODUCTION Lecture Topics (Hall) 1. (Sept. 22) State-building and the Nature of the State I 2. (Sept. 24) State-building and the Nature of the State II Required Reading Otto Hintze, "The State in Historical Perpective", in R. Bendix et al. (eds.) State and Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), pp. 154-169. Bertrand Badie and Pierre Birnbaum, The Sociology of the State (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), pp. 3-24. *Thomas Ertman, Birth of the Leviathan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 1-34. II. THE BEGINNINGS OF EUROPEAN STATE-BUILDING (to 1266) Lecture Topics (Ertman) 1. (Sept. 27) The Birth of Medieval Europe 2. (Sept. 29) The Carolingian Empire and the Origins of Feudalism 3. (Oct. 1) The Struggle of Church and Empire Required Reading Max Weber, "The Social Causes of the Decline of Ancient Civilization", in idem, The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilization (London: Verso, 1988), pp. 389-411. Joseph R. Strayer, "Feudalism in Western Europe", in Frederic Cheyette (ed.), Lordship and Community in Medieval Europe (NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968), pp. 12-21. Otto Hintze, "The Nature of Feudalism", in Cheyette, ed. pp. 22-31. *Thomas Ertman, Birth of the Leviathan, pp. 37-59, 158-164, 226-237. *Maurice Keen, The Pelican History of Medieval Europe (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968), pp. 11-116, 135-177, 192-206. III. THE STATE IN THE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN WEST (1266-1648) Lecture Topics (Ertman) 1. (Oct. 4) Divergent Patterns of Royal Power: Germany, France and England 2. (Oct. 6) Paid Warfare and the Rise of Representative Institutions 3. (Oct. 8) Military Revolution, Reformation and the Origins of Absolutism Required Reading Otto Hintze, "The Preconditions of Representative Government in the Context of World History", in Felix Gilbert (ed.) The Historical Essays of Otto Hintze (NY: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 302-353. *Thomas Ertman, Birth of the Leviathan, pp. 59-110, 164-187, 237-245. *Maurice Keen, The Pelican History of Medieval Europe, pp. 244-276. *John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe (NY: Norton, 1996), pp. 3-46, 92-112. 136-177. IV. THE EUROPEAN STATE ON THE EVE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION Lecture Topics (Ertman) 1. (Oct. 11) No Class-Columbus Day 2. (Oct. 13) Varieties of Absolutism: France and Prussia 3. (Oct. 15) An Alternative to Absolutism: 18th-Century Britain Required Reading Max Weber, Economy and Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), pp. 956-983. *Thomas Ertman, Birth of the Leviathan, pp. 125-155, 187-223, 245-263, 317-324. *John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, pp. 233-260, 274-323, 442-484. V. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE EMERGENCE OF DEMOCRACY Lecture Topics (Ertman and Hall) 1. (Oct. 18) The Fall of the Old Regime and the Advent of the Revolution 2. (Oct. 20) The Paradox of Change without Change: The Revolution and Its Effects on France 3. (Oct. 22) The Napoleonic State Required Reading *Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution (NY: Anchor Books, 1955), pp. 1-77, 138- 211. *John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, pp. 495-586. VI. NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN: THE DEMANDS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION Lecture Topic (Hall) 1. (Oct. 25) The Character of State-Building in the 19th Century 2. (Oct. 27) The Development of Democracy in Britain 3. (Oct. 29) Policy-Making and Administration in Britain Required Reading T. H. Marshall, "Citizenship and Social Class" in idem, Class, Citizenship and Social Development (NY: Doubleday, 1965), pp. 71-134. Trygve Tholfsen, "The Transition to Democracy in Victorian England", International Review of Social History. VI (1961), pp. 226-248. Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1944), pp. 56-76 and 135-162. *John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, pp. 629-637, 788-806. VII. NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE: THE REVOLUTION REWORKED Lecture Topics (Hall) 1. (Nov. 1) Regime Change in Nineteenth-Century France 2. (Nov. 3) The Construction of the Third Republic Required Reading *Alfred Cobban, A History of Modern France, Volume 3: 1871-1962 (NY: Penguin Books, 1978), pp. 1-84. Stanley Hoffmann et al., In Search of France (NY: Harper and Row, 1963), pp. 1-21. *John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, pp. 610-619, 715-722, 730-733, 744-747, 819-843. VIII. NINETEENTH-CENTURY GERMANY: ELITE POLITICS IN THE MASS AGE Lecture Topics (Hall) 1. (Nov. 8) State-building in Germany, 1770-1870 2. (Nov. 10) The Consolidation of the Second Reich Required Reading *Hans-Ulrich Wehler, The German Empire (NY: Berg, 1985), pp. 9-137. *James J. Sheehan, "Conflict and Cohesion among German Elites in the Nineteenth Century", in idem (ed.), Imperial Germany (NY: New Viewpoints, 1976), pp. 62-92. *John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, pp. 765-778, 953-958. IX. NATIONALISM, THE STATE AND MASS POLITICS Lecture Topics (Ertman and Hall) 1. (Nov. 15) Nationalism and State-Building 2. (Nov. 17) Turn of the Century European Politics 3. (Nov. 19) World War I and its Consequences for State-Building Required Reading Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976), pp. 195-220, 292-338. Hans Kohn, The Idea of Nationalism (Macmillan, 1944), pp. 2-24. *Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (NY: Harcourt, Brace, 1951), pp. 123-157, 185-266. *John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, pp. 902-909, 1024-1035, 1078-1084. X. PRESERVING DEMOCRACY IN INTERWAR EUROPE Lecture Topics (Ertman) 1. (Nov. 22) Interwar Britain: Bulwark of Democracy 2. (Nov. 24) Th French Third Republic under Stress Required Reading Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan, Party Systems and Voter Alignments (NY: Free Press, 1967), pp. 26-64. Ross McKibbin, "Class and Conventional Wisdom", in idem., Ideologies of Class (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), pp. 259-293. *Alfred Cobban, A History of Modern France, pp. 85-181. *John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, pp. 1169-1172, 1186-1194. XI. FASCISM: THE PATHOLOGY OF MASS POLITICS Lecture Topics (Ertman) 1. (Nov. 29) The Challenges of Mass Society and the Breakdown of Democracy 2. (Dec. 1) Fascism and the Totalitarian State I 3. (Dec. 3) Fascism and the Totalitarian State II Required Reading *Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (NY: Harcourt, Brace, 1951), pp. 303-459. M. Rainer Lepsius, "From Fragmented Party Democracy to Government by Emergency Decree and National Socialist Takeover: Germany", in Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan (eds.) The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Europe (Washington: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), pp. 34-79. Gordon Craig, Germany 1866-1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), pp. 569-601. *John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, pp. 1139-1151, 1175-1194, 1256-1264 XII. THE STATE IN THE YEARS AFTER WORLD WAR II Lecture Topics (Hall) 1. (Dec. 6) World War II and the Post-War Settlement 2. (Dec. 8) The Evolution of the Keynesian Welfare State 3. (Dec. 10) The Challenges Facing the Post-War State Required Reading Seymour Martin Lipset, "The Changing Class Structure and Contemporary European Politics", in Stephen R. Graubard (ed.), A New Europe? (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967), pp. 337-369. Claus Offe, The Contradictions of the Welfare State (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984, pp. 179-206. Tony Judt, "The Social Question Redivivus". Foreign Affairs (Sept/Oct 1997), pp. 95-117. *John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, pp. 1289-1350. XIII. THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY AND GLOBALIZATION Lecture Topics (Hall) 1. (Dec. 13) International Interdependence and the State 2. (Dec. 15) The Challenges of Fin-de-Siecle Europe 3. (Dec. 17) Approaches to State-Building Reconsidered Required Reading Stanley Hoffman and Robert O. Keohane, The New European Community, (Boulder: Westview Press, 1991), pp. 1- 39. Vincent Cable, "The Diminished Nation-State: a Study in the Loss of Economic Power". Daedalus. Anne-Marie Slaughter, "The Real New World Order". Foreign Affairs (Sept/Oct 1997), pp. 183-197. *John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, pp. 1351-1409.