District Administration by the State after 1848. The Nexus of the “Most Immediate Relations” between the State and the Population. With the abolition of the manorial system in 1848, the Habsburg state was forced to create its own network of local administrative institutions. This project mobilised huge quantities of both personnel and material resources, and eventually affected the everyday lives of the entire population. In Michael Mann’s terms, it intensified the previously thin, extensive power of the state. On the surface, it sought to strengthen the despotic power of the state, but at the same time, it had to rely on manifold contributions by local actors, who were compensated not only with increasing benefits, but also with opportunities to participate in governance. While the neo-absolutist attempt to replace constitutional rule with paternalist bureaucracy failed, it created structures that would remain fundamental to state-building until the end of the Monarchy and beyond.