1932

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.

[Erratum, Closure]

An erratum has been published for this article:
Erratum: Beyond War and Contracts: The Medieval and Religious Roots of the European State
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-050718-032628
2020-05-11
2024-07-04
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/polisci/23/1/annurev-polisci-050718-032628.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-050718-032628&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Abramson SF. 2017. The economic origins of the territorial state. Int. Organ 71:197–140
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Abramson SF, Boix C. 2016. The roots of the Industrial Revolution: political institutions or (socially embodied) know-how? Work. Pap. Princeton Univ. Princeton, NJ:
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Acharya A, Lee A. 2018. Economic foundations of the territorial state system. Am. J. Political Sci. 62:4954–66
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Acharya A, Lee A. 2019. Path dependence in European development: medieval politics, conflict, and state building. Comp. Political Stud. 52:0010414019830716
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Anderson G. 2018. Was there any such thing as a nonmodern state?. State Formations: Global Histories and Cultures of Statehood J Brooke, J Strauss, G Anderson 58–70 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Anderson P. 2013. 1974. Lineages of the Absolutist State London: Verso
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bean R. 1973. War and the birth of the nation state. J. Econ. Hist. 33:1203–21
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Becker S, Pfaff S, Rubin J 2016. Causes and consequences of the Protestant Reformation. Explorations Econ. Hist. 62:C1–25
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Becker S, Woessmann L. 2009. Was Weber wrong? A human capital theory of Protestant economic history. Q. J. Econ. May 531–96
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Berman HJ. 1983a. Religious foundations of law in the west: an historical perspective. J. Law Religion 1:13–43
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Berman HJ. 1983b. Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Blaydes L. 2017. State building in the Middle East. Annu. Rev. Political Sci. 20:487–504
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Blaydes L, Chaney E. 2013. The feudal revolution and Europe's rise: political divergence of the Christian West and the Muslim world before 1500 CE. Am. Political Sci. Rev. 107:116–34
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Blaydes L, Grimmer J, McQueen A 2018. Mirrors for princes and sultans: advice on the art of governance in the medieval Christian and Islamic worlds. J. Politics 80:41150–67
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Blaydes L, Paik C. 2016. The impact of Holy Land crusades on state formation: war mobilization, trade integration, and political development in medieval Europe. Int. Organ 703551–86
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Blum U, Dudley L. 2001. Religion and economic growth: Was Weber right?. J. Evolutionary Econ. 11:207–30
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Bosker M, Buringh E, van Zanden JL 2013. From Baghdad to London: unraveling urban development in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, 800–1800. Rev. Econ. Stat. 95:41418–37
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Bossy J. 1970. The counter-reformation and the people of Catholic Europe. Past Present 47:May51–70
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Bryce J. 1978. The papacy master of the field. The Investiture Controversy K Morrison 84–91 Huntington, NY: Krieger
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Bueno de Mesquita B. 2000. Popes, kings, and endogenous institutions: the Concordat of Worms and the origins of sovereignty. Int. Stud. Rev. 2:293–118
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Cantoni D. 2014. The economic effects of the Protestant Reformation: testing the Weber hypothesis in the German lands. J. Eur. Econ. Assoc. 13:4561–98
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Cantoni D, Yuchtman N. 2014. Medieval universities, legal institutions, and the commercial revolution. Q. J. Econ. 129:2823–87
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Cantor N. 1958. Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England 1089–1135 Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Carruthers BG. 1990. Politics, popery, and property: a comment on North and Weingast. J. Econ. Hist. 50:3693–98
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Clark D. 1986. The medieval origins of modern legal education: between church and state. Am. J. Comp. Law 35:653–719
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Clark G 1996. The political foundations of modern economic growth: England, 1540–1800. J. Interdiscip. Hist 26:4563–88
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Cox GW. 2012. Was the Glorious Revolution a constitutional watershed?. J. Econ. Hist. 72:3567–600
    [Google Scholar]
  28. De Carvalho B, Leira H, Hobson JM 2011. The big bangs of IR: the myths that your teachers still tell you about 1648 and 1919. Millennium 39:3735–58
    [Google Scholar]
  29. DeLong B, Shleifer A. 1993. Princes and merchants; European city growth before the Industrial Revolution. J. Law Econ. 36:2671–702
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Dincecco M, Onorato MG. 2016. Military conflict and the rise of urban Europe. J. Econ. Growth 21:3259–82
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Dincecco M, Wang Y 2018. Violent conflict and political development over the long run: China versus Europe. Annu. Rev. Political Sci. 21:341–58
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Dittmar JE, Meisenzahl RR. 2020. Public goods institutions, human capital, and growth: evidence from German history. Rev. Econ. Stud. 87:2959–96
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Downing B. 1992. The Military Revolution and Political Change Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Duby G. 1974. The Early Growth of the European Economy transl. H Clarke Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press. From French
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Eire CM. 2016. Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450–1650 New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Ekelund RB Jr., Hébert RF, Tollison RD 2002. An economic analysis of the Protestant Reformation. J. Political Econ. 110:3646–71
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Ertman T. 1997. Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early Modern Europe Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Ertman T. 2017. Otto Hintze, Stein Rokkan, and Charles Tilly's theory of European state-building. See Kaspersen & Strandbjerg 2017 52–69
  39. Finer SE. 1997. The History of Government from the Earliest Times: The Intermediate Ages New York: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Fouquet R, Broadberry S. 2015. Seven centuries of European economic growth and decline. J. Econ. Perspect. 29:4227–44
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Fukuyama F. 2017. Political consequences of the Protestant Reformation, part I. Am. Interest Oct. 31. https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/10/31/political-consequences-protestant-reformation-part/
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Genet J-P. 1992. Introduction: Which state rises?. Historical Res 65:157119–33
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Gorski P. 1999. Calvinism and state formation in early modern Europe. State/Culture: State-Formation After the Cultural Turn G Steinmetz 147–81 Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Gorski P. 2003. The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Gorski P, Sharma V. 2017. Beyond the Tilly thesis: “family values” and state formation in Latin Christendom. See Kaspersen & Strandbjerg 2017 98–124
  46. Greif A. 2006. Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Grzymala-Busse A. 2015. Nations Under God: How Churches Use Moral Authority to Influence Policy Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Grzymala-Busse A, Jones Luong PJ 2002. Reconceptualizing the state: lessons from post-communism. Political Theory 30:4529–54
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Guiso L, Sapienza P, Zingales L 2016. Long-term persistence. J. Eur. Econ. Assoc. 14:61401–36
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Hay D. 1995. Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries New York: Longman
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Held D. 1995. Democracy and Global Order Cambridge, UK: Polity
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Heldring L, Robinson J, Vollmer S 2017. The long-run impact of the dissolution of the English monasteries Work. Pap. Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MA:
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Hintze O. 1975. 1906. The Historical Essays of Otto Hintze F Gilbert New York: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Hoffman P. 2015. Why Did Europe Conquer the World? Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Isenmann H. 1999. The Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages. The Rise of the Fiscal State in Europe, 1250–1815 R Bonney 243–80 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Johnson ND, Koyama M. 2017. States and economic growth: capacity and constraints. Explorations Econ. Hist. 64:1–20
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Jordan WC. 2001. Europe in the High Middle Ages London: Penguin Books
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Kaspersen LB, Strandsbjerg J 2017. Does War Make States? Investigations of Charles Tilly's Historical Sociology New York: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Kokkonen A, Sundell A. 2014. Delivering stability—primogeniture and autocratic survival in European Monarchies 1000–1800. Am. Political Sci. Rev. 108:2438–53
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Konrad K, Skaperdas S. 2012. The market for protection and the origin of the state. Econ. Theory 50:2417–43
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Krasner S. 1993. Westphalia and all that. Ideas and Foreign Policy J Goldstein, RO Keohane 235–64 Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Kroeschell K. 1973. Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte 2 (1250–1650) Hamburg: Rowohlt
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Levi M. 1988. Of Rule and Revenue Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Mann M. 1986. The Sources of Social Power Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Marongiu A. 1968. Medieval Parliaments transl. SJ Woolf London: Eyre and Spottswoode. From Italian
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Mitterauer M. 2010. Why Europe? The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Møller J. 2014. Why Europe avoided hegemony: a historical perspective on the balance of power. Int. Stud. Q. 58:4660–70
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Møller J. 2015. The medieval roots of democracy. J. Democracy 26:3110–23
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Møller J. 2017a. State Formation, Regime Change, and Economic Development New York: Routledge
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Møller J. 2017b. Medieval origins of the rule of law: the Gregorian reforms as critical juncture?. Hague J. Rule Law 9:2265–82
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Møller J. 2018. Medieval roots of the modern state: the conditional effects of geopolitical pressure on early modern state building. Soc. Sci. Hist. 42:02295–316
    [Google Scholar]
  72. Moore B. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy Boston: Beacon
    [Google Scholar]
  73. Moraw P. 1989. Cities and citizenry as factors of state formation in the Roman-German Empire of the late Middle Ages. Theory Soc 18:631–62
    [Google Scholar]
  74. Morgenthau H. 1985. Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace New York: McGraw-Hill
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Muhll GEVD. 2003. Ancient empires, modern states, and the study of government. Annu. Rev. Political Sci. 6:1345–76
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Nexon D. 2009. The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  77. North DC, Thomas RP. 1973. The Rise of the Western World Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  78. North DC, Weingast BR. 1989. Constitutions and commitment: the evolution of institutions governing public choice in seventeenth-century England. J. Econ. Hist. 49:4803–32
    [Google Scholar]
  79. Ober J. 2015. The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  80. Osiander A. 2001. Sovereignty, international relations, and the Westphalian myth. Int. Organ. 55:2251–87
    [Google Scholar]
  81. Padgett J, Powell W 2012. The Emergence of Organizations and Markets Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Philpott D. 2000. The religious roots of modern international relations. World Politics 52:2206–45
    [Google Scholar]
  83. Pincus SC, Robinson JA. 2011. What really happened during the Glorious Revolution? NBER Work. Pap 17206
    [Google Scholar]
  84. Rabb T. 2006. The Last Days of the Renaissance. New York: Basic Books
  85. Reinhard W. 1989. Reformation, counter-Reformation, and the early modern state: a reassessment. Catholic Hist. Rev. 75:3383–404
    [Google Scholar]
  86. Reynolds S. 1997. Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe, 900–1300 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  87. Reynolds S. 2004. Government and community. The New Cambridge Medieval History D Luscombe, J Riley-Smith 86–112 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  88. Rigaudiere A. 1995. The theory and practice of government in Western Europe in the fourteenth century. The New Cambridge Medieval History T Reuter , Vol. 617–41 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  89. Rokkan S. 1999. State Formation, Nation-Building, and Mass Politics in Europe: The Theory of Stein Rokkan: Based on His Collected Works Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  90. Rubin J. 2017. Rulers, Religion, and Values: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  91. Salter AW, Young AT. 2018. Medieval representative assemblies: collective action and antecedents of limited government. Const. Political Econ. 29:2171–92
    [Google Scholar]
  92. Saylor R, Wheeler N. 2017. Paying for war and building state: the coalitional politics of debt servicing and tax institutions. World Politics 69:2366–408
    [Google Scholar]
  93. Scheidel W. 2019. Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  94. Sharma VS. 2015. Kinship, property, and authority. Politics Soc 43:2151–80
    [Google Scholar]
  95. Skinner Q. 2018. On the person of the state. State Formations: Global Histories and Cultures of Statehood J Brooke, J Strauss, G Anderson 25–44 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  96. Spruyt H. 1994. The Sovereign State and Its Competitors Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  97. Spruyt H. 2002. The origins, development, and possible decline of the modern state. Annu. Rev. Political Sci. 5:1127–49
    [Google Scholar]
  98. Spruyt H. 2011. War, trade, and state formation. The Oxford Handbook of Political Science R. Goodin 567–92 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  99. Spruyt H. 2017. War and state formation: amending the bellicist theory of state making. See Kaspersen & Strandsbjerg 2017 73–97
  100. Stasavage D. 2011. States of Credit: Size, Power, and the Development of European Politics Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  101. Stasavage D. 2014. Was Weber right? The role of urban autonomy in Europe's rise. Am. Political Sci. Rev. 108:2337–54
    [Google Scholar]
  102. Strayer J. 1998. 1970. On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  103. Sussman N, Yafeh Y. 2006. Institutional reforms, financial development and sovereign debt: Britain 1690–1790. J. Econ. Hist. 66:4906–35
    [Google Scholar]
  104. Teschke B. 2003. The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics, and the Making of Modern International Relations London: Verso
    [Google Scholar]
  105. Teschke B. 2017. After the Tilly thesis: social conflict, differential state formation and geopolitics in the construction of the European system. See Kaspersen & Strandsbjerg 2017 25–51
  106. Tierney B. 1988. 1964. The Crisis of Church and State 1050–1300 Toronto: Mart21
    [Google Scholar]
  107. Tilly C. 1975. The Formation of National States in Western Europe Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  108. Tilly C. 1992. Coercion, Capital, and European States: AD 990–1992 Cambridge, MA: Blackwell
    [Google Scholar]
  109. Ullmann W. 1965. 1955. The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages London: Methuen
    [Google Scholar]
  110. Van Creveld M. 1999. The Rise and Decline of the State Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  111. Van Zanden J, Buringh E, Bosker M 2012. The rise and decline of European parliaments, 1188–1789. Econ. Hist. Rev. 65:3835–61
    [Google Scholar]
  112. Verger J. 1999. The universities and scholasticism. The New Cambridge Medieval History D Abulafia, Vol. 4 256–78 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  113. Verger J. 2003a. Teachers. A History of the University in Europe: Universities in the Middle Ages H De Ridder-Symoens , Vol. 3144–69 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  114. Verger J. 2003b. Universities. A History of the University in Europe: Universities in the Middle Ages H de Ridder-Symoens , Vol. 166–81 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  115. Voigtländer N, Voth HJ. 2013. Gifts of Mars: warfare and Europe's early rise to riches. J. Econ. Perspect. 27:4165–86
    [Google Scholar]
  116. Wang Y. 2018. Sons and lovers: political stability in China and Europe before the Great Divergence Work. Pap., Harvard Univ Cambridge, MA: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3058065
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  117. Watson A. 1992. The Evolution of International Society London: Routledge
    [Google Scholar]
  118. Wickham C. 2016. Medieval Europe New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  119. Wieacker F. 1995. A History of Private Law in Europe with Particular Reference to Germany transl. T Weir Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press. From German
    [Google Scholar]
  120. Williamson O. 1985. The Economic Institutions of Capitalism New York: Free Press
    [Google Scholar]
  121. Wood EM. 2002. The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View London: Verso. , 2nd ed..
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-050718-032628
Loading
  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
OSZAR »