The State, France and the Sixteenth Century

Originally published in 1983, this book discusses an important ideological development: the emergence of a new concept of the state as a substantive entity and the source of the ruler's authority over his subjects. It maintains that such a concept emerged in French political thought of the sixteenth century and was promptly assimilated into existing systems of ideas. The book re-interprets numerous aspects of the French kingdom's social composition, means of government, economic condition a...