Jean Bodin and the Rise of Absolutist Theory

by Julian H. Franklin

Overview

The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572 polarised French constitutional ideas. Appearing on one side was a radicalised version of the French constitution. On the other side was the theory of royal absolutism systematically developed by Bodin. The central thesis of this book is that Bodin's absolutism was as unprecedented as the doctrine it opposed. Prior to the 1570s the mainstream of the French tradition had been tentatively constitutionalist and Bodin himself had given strong expression to that tendency in his Methodus of 1566. His earlier theory of sovereignty, elaborated in that work, was implicitly adapted to a notion of limited supremacy. Professor Franklin's aim is to explain how this absolutist view was formed. In doing so, he has clarified many of the notorious obscurities in Bodin's thought and since much of the absolutist doctrine of the seventeenth century was either based on Bodin's theory or relied on similar assumptions, this study will be of great importance and interest to scholars of a later period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521110143
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/30/2009
Series:	Cambridge Studies in the History and Theory of Politics
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.31(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. The persistence of medieval constitutionalism; 2. Bodin's early theory of sovereignty; 3. The shift to absolutism; 4. The case for absolutism; 5. Limitations on absolute authority; 6. The question of resistance; 7. Concluding observations; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.