In recent years, the emergence of the "state" and the development of "state power" in early modern Europe have provoked strong interest among historians. Central to this interest has been the effort to describe the stages and patterns in the structural development of European states, to connect these stages and patterns to the relentless expansion of the claims of state sovereignty, and to analyse the conditions of, and reasons for, that expansion. The aim has been to explain the origin of the highly developed, intrusive modern state. The period under consideration has been the entire development of the European state--starting in the late medieval period, but with a particular focus on the Early Modern period, when these striking developments gained real momentum.

Yet amidst all this interest, it is not generally noticed that a comparable development had already taken place earlier in European history. The political system of the Roman Empire underwent, over several centuries, a development strikingly parallel to what can be observed between 1500 to 1800. A similar gradual expansion of the claims of state sovereignty can be observed at Rome, and here too this expansion was accompanied by the consolidation of state power. The period in which this development is most dramatically visible is Late Antiquity. The Roman state of that epoch was characterised by a degree of centralisation and complexity that has no parallel in antiquity, and displays instead a number of parallels, remarkable in retrospect, to the bureaucratic states that came into existence in the Early Modern period.

As of yet, no serious attempt at a comparative analysis of the process of state formation in these two periods of history has been made either by ancient historians or by early modernists. By discussing the structural changes involved and analysing their similarities and differences--as well as the reasons for them and the circumstances in which they arise--this comparative conference aims to remedy this omission. The contemplation of individual aspects and problems should either advance the identification of patterns in state-formation, or, if necessary, modify existing models.

The conference focuses on four aspects of the theme:
The first panel of the conference will investigate, both in the Late Empire and Early Modern Europe, the considerable, and accelerating, development of a strong central power at the expense of local political institutions, and will concentrate in particular on the interactions between the two that helped to bring this development about. The second panel will consider the institutional development of the late-antique and early modern states, investigating the reasons for the emergence and growth of the ever more complex bureaucratic apparatus in both periods and seeking to discover the functional principles of late antique and early modern administrations: to what extent, for example, did Weberian 'rationalisation' affect bureaucracy, and where and under what conditions could "irrational", or personal, elements continue to exist? The third panel will examine an issue that characterised both periods: the central role of religion (or, respectively, confession). Why did the late antique and early modern states influence the religious sphere to a previously unknown degree, and what were the consequences of this, in turn, for the development of the concept of the state? The fourth panel will examine, finally, the shaping of society by the state, like the emergence of new functional élites or--the backbone of pre-modern agricultural societies--the rural population.

Transl. from German by Christian Wieland