The cataclysmic changes which transformed the political map of Europe in the brief space of three years cast an interesting new light on one of the most signal and far-reaching legacies of the Age of Enlightenment. born of deep faith in reason and revolt against tradition, the administrative reform of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shared something else in common: belief in the idea what the administrative state can produce solutions to the problems which face our modern world and serve as a primary vehicle on the road to social progress.