LFU:online

Skills to write a Bachelor thesis, practice how to present a paper

Until today the functioning of political systems can only in part be explained from their written rules. This applied even more to the structures of domination before the fundamental codified constitutions from the late eighteenth century onwards. Therefore, in the seminar we will deal with the question how formalized procedures and informal practices were connected in early modern Europe and how this relationship was affected by notions of legitimacy and illegitimacy. The complementary research concepts of “patronage” and “corruption” offer themselves as essential models of interpretation in this context.

Reading and discussion of sources and research literature

Presentation and final paper

Introductions: (1) Engels, Jens Ivo, Die Geschichte der Korruption: Von der Frühen Neuzeit bis ins 20. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt a. M. 2014; (2) Asch, Ronald G. / Emich, Birgit / Engels, Jens Ivo (Eds.), Integration, Legitimation, Korruption: Politische Patronage in Früher Neuzeit und Moderne, Frankfurt a. M. u.a. 2011; (3) Grüne, Niels / Slanička, Simona (Eds.), Korruption: Historische Annäherungen an eine Grundfigur politischer Kommunikation, Göttingen 2010