Historical Sociology of the State

The common thread running through the panels in this section is the inspiration provided by the work of Stein Rokkan, one of the founders of the ECPR. The recent appearance of Flora, Kuhnle and Urwin’s new edition of Rokkan’s writings offers the perfect opportunity to reassess the lasting significance of this great social scientist. Panel 1, to be organized by a former protégé of Rokkan’s, Gerhard Lehmbruch, focuses on a topic that featured prominently in the former’s “conceptual map of Europe,” namely divergent patterns of centralization and federalism across the continent. Taking up themes explored by Lehmbruch in many writings on Germany, it seeks to identify the branching points that led to either unitary or federal patterns of centralization and to illuminate the co-existence of both federalist and centralist elements in many states such as Germany. In his contribution, Gerhard Lehmbruch will compare the trajectory of federalism in the intertwined German and Austrian cases, while Daniel Ziblatt will ask why German unification resulted in a federal state whereas Italian unification did not. Finally, Frans van Waarden will examine the transformation of the Netherlands from one of Europe’s most federal to one of its most centralized states; and a participant still to be determined will look at the contrasting case of Spain, where a similar passage from federalism to centralization never fully succeeded, ultimately giving way to the semi-federal state of today. Panel 3 will also explore a subject central to Rokkan’s thought, namely the political development of the Scandinavian countries Sweden, Denmark and his native Norway. The democratization of this region exhibits many common features, from a relative lack of civil strife to a resulting pattern of stable democratic politics in which social democratic parties remain hegemonic. Did these similar features emerge from underlying common factors, from patterns of reciprocal influence and learning, or both? This similarity is all the more remarkable given the very different patterns of early modern statebuilding that characterized these three cases. It will be examined in light of the latest historical research by Rune Premfors (Sweden), Tim Knudsen (Denmark) and Bernt Hagtvet (Norway-invited).