The dynamics of Austrian governance, 1780-1848 -- The madness of Count Stadion, or, Austria between revolution and reaction -- The reforging of the Habsburg state, 1849-1859 -- State building on a new track : Austria in the 1860s -- The years of procedure, 1868-1900 -- Bureaucracy and democracy in the final decades of the monarchy, 1890-1914 -- Epilogue : the state of exception : Austria's descent into the twentieth century.