Absolute monarchy in Denmark: Change and continuity∗

“…But empirically, this relationship is not so clear. Most of the hallmarks of nationalism from Gellner’s (1983) modernist criteria were evident in Denmark by the mid‐eighteenth century (Barton 1986:44; Jespersen 1987:315), though Denmark was an agrarian society that industrialized at the close of the nineteenth century. While liberal ideas were present, such beliefs coexisted with a religious revival and an occasionally draconian justice system.…”

Section: Institutionalist Theories Of Collective Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectacle and Space in the Creation of Premodern and Modern Polities: Toward a Mixed Ontology of Collective Identity1

Acuff

2012

International Political Sociology

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Acuff, Jonathan M. (2012) Spectacle and Space in the Creation of Premodern and Modern Polities: Toward a Mixed Ontology of Collective Identity. International Political Sociology, doi: 10.1111/j.1749‐5687.2012.00155.x  © 2012 International Studies Association Much recent work on culture and identity in International Relations (IR) has emphasized the causal role of ideas and institutions. I articulate a broader socialization process for collective identities via material elements of identity construction. I argue that combined with rituals and linked to myths and symbols, material representations of culture such as monuments and architecture form the collective memories of polities in a similar manner to the socializing effects of educational institutions and vernacular literature. I illustrate these claims with a comparison of materiality and praxis elements of identity construction in imperial Rome and late‐modern Austria–Hungary, with concluding analysis of the role of material culture in the future of “European” identity in the EU.

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“…Most explanations and analyses of the transformation from absolutism to democracy in Denmark are seen from the perspective of society. Rarely do we find a statist approach in which the interests of the state and the state elite are accounted for in the analysis, but there are a few instances (Jespersen, 1983(Jespersen, , 1987Østergård, 1992;Lind, 1994;. Most of these scholars tend to use the military dimension as one among many other variables, or they tend to claim that warfare and geopolitics are only relevant for understanding social change in certain limited cases.…”

Section: From Absolutism To Democracy -The Traditional Explanationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The wars between Denmark and Sweden, the defeat of the Danish army, the loss of territory to Sweden and the loss of hegemony in the Baltic forced the Danish state to reorganize in order to survive. The Danish King Frederik III and his army (introduced in 1614 as a permanent institution) compelled the nobility to accept a new constitution -Lex Regia or the Royal Law of 1665 -the only written absolutist constitution in Europe (Lind, 1994;Jespersen, 1987). He now no longer depended on the Rigsråd (the State Council).…”

Section: The Transition To the Absolutist Statementioning

confidence: 99%