"Germany's and Italy's belated national unification continue to loom large in contemporary debates. Often regarded as Europe's paradigmatic instances of failed modernization, the two countries' experiences form the basis of many of our most prized theories of social science. Structuring the State undertakes one of the first systematic comparisons of the two cases, putting the origins of the two nation-states and the nature of European political development in a new light." "Structuring the State offers a broader theory of federalism's origins that will interest scholars and students of comparative politics, state-building, international relations, and European political history."--Jacket.