Jews and the early modern European nation-states This study in historical sociology deals with the construction of the Jewish question and the solutions adopted in the post-feudal societies of Europe The authors found three policy models Western Europe made an early move tov/ards unconditional emancipation which corresponded to the liberal conception in Jacobine France of the nation-state including equality of all citi zens before the law and unfettered competition the fields of economy politics and culture In Central Europe the Austro- Hungarian Empire and Germany) those empires involved in progams of first of all absolutist and then parliamentary consti tutional modernization proceeded with negotiated conditional policy of emancipation based on the degree of assimilation of the Jewish communities In Eastern European States Russia and Rumania) the slow limited modernization in Rumania the advent of an independent State stemmed from the institutiona- lization of an {anti-Jewish} policy which continued to prohibit emancipation up until the First World War