Abstract
Where does the state come from? Two canonical answers have been interstate wars and contracts between rulers and the ruled in the early modern period. New scholarship has pushed back the historical origins of the European state to the Middle Ages, and focused on domestic institutions such as parliaments, universities, the law, inheritance rules, and cities. It has left open questions of the causes of territorial fragmentation, the structural similarities in state administrations, and the policy preoccupations of the state. One answer is a powerful but neglected force in state formation: the medieval Church, which served as a rival for sovereignty, and a template for institutional innovations in court administrations, the law, and the formation of human capital. Church influence further helps to explain why territorial fragmentation in the Middle Ages persisted, why royal courts adopted similar administrative solutions, and why secular states remain concerned with morality and social discipline.
Highlights
Where does the state come from? This question is fundamental to our understanding of economic growth, good governance, regime stability, and democratic success
Medieval cities were another site of state formation, hosting parliaments and creating new institutional claims, notably in the “city belt” of former Roman cities that stretched from northern Italy to southern Germany and Switzerland (Rokkan 1999, p. 71ff )
Pushing back the rise of the state to the Middle Ages necessitates that we give credit to a powerful political force of the time: the Church, with its challenge to secular rule and its provision of human capital and administrative resources
Summary
Where does the state come from? This question is fundamental to our understanding of economic growth, good governance, regime stability, and democratic success. Competing for territory and authority, rulers of fragmented territories had to wrest resources from their subjects to fight wars—and the resulting institutions allowed states to extract more efficiently These taxes were reinvested back into the machinery of the state, allowing rulers both to expand the administrative roles and offices of the state and to consolidate its power. No monarch could obtain assets without the compliance of at least some of the wealthy (and armed) elites—and so kings entered into explicit agreements with nobles, merchants, and clergy In these accounts, representative assemblies limited the discretion of rulers in exchange for the income to fight wars, build states, and promote growth and state development. Scholars are reexamining this period, armed with more precise conceptual tools and sophisticated empirical strategies All these explanations largely neglect the fundamental rival for authority and an essential source of domestic state institutions: the medieval Church. Was the Catholic Church the most powerful, wealthy, and pervasive force in medieval Europe—and, as earlier scholars [Hintze 1975 (1906), Strayer 1998 (1970), Berman 1983a] stressed, it directly influenced state formation. much of the literature on state development has either
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
