Tying the King's Hands

Historians commonly assume that the Old Regime monarchy in France attempted to eliminate corporate society in order to create liberal institutions. They also assume that the centralization of state power occurred at the expense of such corporate bodies as provincial estates, the municipal corporations, and the village communities. By contrast, I argue that those institutions were not vestiges of an earlier society waiting to be swept away by the stronger, more unified modern state. Instead, I believe that corporate bodies not only flourished under the Old Regime, but contributed to the functioning of the absolute state.