Regina Grafe (EUI-Florenz): European Political Formations and Fiscal Capacity: Why Spain was not Different

Historians have for decades criticised the idea of European polities’ early modern march towards absolutism. But only more recently alternative models of state formation have been proposed. In the case of the Spanish Empire a growing historiography analyses the complexities of its evolution now under the label of “polycentric monarchy” (see e.g. Cardim et al 2012). Starting from a multitude of empirical studies across the empire, this new literature provides an effective new language to analyse and describe power structures within and across different scales of imperial, European and peninsular governance. It has, however, done so arguably at the expense of reviving another beaten stereotype of Spanish historiography: that “Spain is different” (i.e. polycentric). This paper proposes a new basic theoretical model of European (and global) state formation to resolve the existing contradictions between a view of state formation in general still based on historical sociology and a modern historical literature of the same process.

• Zeit: 16-18 Uhr c.t.
• Ort: Historicum, Raum K 226