Mira Siegelberg (QMUL)

This module will explore the the cross-fertilization of ideas across the Atlantic about  the modern state, the law, society, industrial capitalism, and the modern self, from the end of the nineteenth century through the twentieth century. As western states expanded their welfarist and administrative functions in the late nineteenth century, political and legal theorists began to rethink concepts of sovereignty, rights, law, and legality in relation to new ideas about the modern self and the relationship between state and society. It will focus on the figures who offered sustained reflection on the transformation from the rechtsstaat ideal of the nineteenth century to the twentieth century administrative state.