Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. The origins of patrimonial absolutism in Latin Europe; 3. The triumph of patrimonial absolutism and the failure of reform in Latin Europe, c. 1500–1789; 4. Bureaucratic constitutionalism in Britain; 5. Bureaucratic absolutism in Germany; 6. Patrimonial constitutionalism in Hungary and Poland and its premature demise in Scandinavia; 7. Conclusion.

Promotional Information

Ertman presents a new theory to explain the variation in political regimes and state infrastructures in pre-French Revolution Europe.

Reviews

' This is definitely a book for historians as well as for social scientists constituting in all a remarkable achievement.' The English Historical Review