Context Construction Through Competition: The Prerogative of Public Power, Intermediary Institutions, and the Expansion of Statehood Through Competition

This article examines the relationship between the evolution of statehood and competition in the European context. To begin with, a particular take on the evolution of modern political power in the state form in Europe is developed. Against this background, the article reconstructs how the institutionalization of competition as a specific type of policy tool has been used by emerging modern states to establish their authority vis-à-vis competing claims to public authority in society. The article, furthermore, engages in an examination of (neo-)corporatist and governance-based attempts both to curb and to expand the use of competition as a tool for organizing social processes, and the implications of these attempts for the state of statehood.