ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 traces the philosophy of state developed by Austria’s estatist opposition during the early decades of the seventeenth century. Inspired by international currents, but relying primarily on indigenous legal and societal tradition, aristocratic activists confronted the renewed emphasis on monarchic sovereignty. In the writings of Georg Erasmus von Tschernembl, especially, an alternative vision of state and governance took shape whose implementation would have transformed the history of Central Europe.
