Cover -- Contents -- Contributors -- Abstracts -- Preface -- Introduction: Empowering Interactions: Looking at Statebuilding from Below -- Part I SOUTHERN EUROPE -- 1 The Construction of Local Political Identity in Lake and River Communities in North-West Italy, Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries -- 2 Models of Government 'from Below' in Fifteenth-Century Lombardy. The 'Capitoli di Dedizione' to Francesco Sforza, 1447−1450 -- 3 Local Conflicts and Political Authorities in the Papal State in the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century -- 4 The Politics of Mercy: Village Petitions and a Noblewoman's Justice in the Roman Countryside in the Eighteenth Century -- 5 The Dynamics of Law Formation in Italian Legal Science during the Early Modern Period: the Function of Custom -- Part II CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE -- 6 Threats from Above on Request from Below: Dynamics of the Territorial Administration of Berne, 1420-1450 -- 7 Modes of Reading, Community Practice and the Constitution of Textual Authority in the Thurgau and Graubünden, 1520−1660 -- 8 'God is high up, the Tsar is far away'. The Nature of Polity and Political Culture in Seventeenth-Century Russia. A Comparative View -- 9 Communication between Authorities and Subjects in Bohemia, Hungary and the Holy German Empire, 1650−1800: A Comparison of Three Case Studies -- 10 Corporate Property, Collective Resources and Statebuilding in Older Swiss History -- 11 Local Demand for Order and Government Intervention: Social Group Conflicts as Statebuilding Factors in Villages of the Rhine Palatinate, c.1760−1810 -- 12 Joseph-Samuel Farinet and the 'Modern' State: Banditry, Patronage and Resistance in Nineteenth-Century Valais -- Part III NORTHERN AND WESTERN EUROPE − AND BEYOND.

13 Political Topos or Community Principle? Res Publica as a Source of Legitimacy in the French Peasants' Revolts of the Late Middle Ages -- 14 Statebuilding in Portugal during the Middle Ages: A Royal Endeavour in Partnership with the Local Powers? -- 15 Informing the Council. Central Institutions and Local Knowledge in the Spanish Empire -- 16 Peasants and Tax-farmers in Seventeenth-Century Sweden: Local Conflict and Institutional Change -- 17 Statebuilding with the Participation of the Estates? East Frisia between Territorial Legislation and Communalist Ritual,1611-1744 -- Part IV HISTORIOGRAPHICAL AND CONCEPTUAL DEBATES -- 18 Citizens and their Rulers -- 19 Concepts and Approaches in Recent Scholarship on Statebuilding - A Critical Review -- 20 No Statebuilding from Below! A Critical Commentary -- 21 Statebuilding from Below - Towards a Balanced View -- 22 The Impact of Communication Theory on the Analysis of the Early Modern Statebuilding Processes -- 23 Empowering Interactions and Intertwining Jurisdictions -- Index.