[PDF] Ideal Government And The Mixed Constitution In The Middle Ages eBook

Author : James M. Blythe
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 362 pages
File Size : 31,6 MB
Release : 2014-07-14
Category : History
ISBN : 1400862604

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Ancient Greeks and Romans often wrote that the best form of government consists of a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Political writers in the early modern period applied this idea to government in England, Venice, and Florence, and Americans used it in designing their constitution. In this history of political thought James Blythe investigates what happened to the concept of mixed constitution during the Middle Ages, when the work of the Greek historian Polybius, the source of many of the formal elements of early modern theory, was unknown in Latin. Although it is generally argued that Renaissance and early modern theories of mixed constitution derived from the revival of classical Polybian models, Blythe demonstrates the pervasiveness of such ideas in high and late medieval thought. The author traces medieval Aristotelian theories concerning the best form of government and concludes that most endorsed a limited monarchy sharing many features with the mixed constitution. He also shows that the major early modern ideas of mixed constitutionalism stemmed from medieval and Aristotelian thought, which partially explains the enthusiastic reception of Polybius in the sixteenth century. Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Author : Alexander William Salter
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
Page : 311 pages
File Size : 10,61 MB
Release : 2023-08-08
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0472903357

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Why did enduring traditions of economic and political liberty emerge in Western Europe and not elsewhere? Representative democracy, constitutionalism, and the rule of law are crucial for establishing a just and prosperous society, which we usually treat as the fruits of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, as Western European societies put the Dark Ages behind them. In The Medieval Constitution of Liberty, Salter and Young point instead to the constitutional order that characterized the High Middle Ages. They provide a historical account of how this constitutional order evolved following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This account runs from the settlements of militarized Germanic elites within the imperial frontiers, to the host of successor kingdoms in the sixth and seventh centuries, and through the short-lived Carolingian empire of the late eighth and ninth centuries and the so-called “feudal anarchy” that followed its demise. Given this unique historical backdrop, Salter and Young consider the resulting structures of political property rights. They argue that the historical reality approximated a constitutional ideal type, which they term polycentric sovereignty. Salter and Young provide a theoretical analysis of polycentric sovereignty, arguing that bargains between political property rights holders within that sort of constitutional order will lead to improvements in governance.

Author : Walter Ullmann
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 648 pages
File Size : 38,42 MB
Release : 2010-01-29
Category : History
ISBN : 1136999280

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In many respects this book, first published in 1961, marked a somewhat radical departure from contemporary historical writings. It is neither a constitutional nor a political history, but a historical definition and explanation of the main features which characterised the three kinds of government which can be discerned in the Middle Ages – government by the Pope, the King, the People. The author’s enviable knowledge of the sources – clerical, secular, legal, constitutional, liturgical, literary – as well as of modern literature enables him to demonstrate the principles upon which the papal government, the royal government, and the government of the people rested. He shows how the traditional theocratic forms of government came to be supplanted by forms of government based on the will of the people. Although concerned with the Middle Ages, the book also contains much that is of topical interest to the discerning student of modern institutions. Medieval history is made understandable to modern man by modern methods.

Author : Otto von Gierke
Publisher : Jazzybee Verlag
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 32,67 MB
Release : 2020
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 3849658058

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This excellent book is a translation of a very small portion of Dr. Gierke’s “ Deutsches Genossenschaftsrecht, " being the section entitled “ Die Publizistischen Lehren des Mittelalters. ” Its ten chapters treat of the following questions : The evolution of political theory under the diverse influences of ancient philosophy and law, medieval theology, local custom; Macrocosm and microcosm, i.e., the relation of the whole of society to its parts and vice versa from the medieval viewpoint; unity in Church and State, wherein are discussed the warring positions of parties in both, evolved by the length of the contest between the papacy and the empire; the idea of organization, i.e., of society as an organism; the idea of monarchy, its derivation from God, its consequent relations with the plenitudo potestatis of the papacy; the idea of popular sovereignty, its conflicts and combinations with the ruler's sovereignty, first in the temporal sphere, second, analogous developments of the idea as applied to the government of the Church, somewhat painfully brought out by the conciliar movement; the idea of representation; the idea of personality, i.e., of justice or legal personality applied to the Church and State or to minor corporations; the relation of the state to the law, natural and positive; the beginnings of the modern state, i.e., those elements in medieval doctrine that led up to the modern idea of the state. One half of the book is devoted to notes that elucidate the text of the cited authorities, a long list of which, both ancient and modern, is given. The mere enumeration of the titles of the chapters and the fact that the translation has been undertaken by so eminent a legal historian as Mr. Maitland are a warrant that the work is important, even for those who are not disposed to accept Dr. Gierke's views on faith. English - speaking readers in general must find it interesting, accustomed as they are to look on medieval thought as mere idle speculation of the logicians; as if political theories did not then, as now, agitate men's minds and lay the foundations for much of those political blessings that we now enjoy, or think we do. To a close observer of the development of government in the Catholic Church some portions will be, not merely interesting, but absorbing. They may even be instructive, though at the sacrifice of some preconceptions.

Author : Ptolemy of Lucca
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Page : 323 pages
File Size : 25,39 MB
Release : 2010-11-24
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0812201337

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Ptolemy, considered a proto-Humanist by some, combined the principles of Northern Italian republicanism with Aristotelian theory in his De Regimine Principum, a book that influenced much of the political thought of the later Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the early modern period. He was the first to attack kingship as despotism and to draw parallels between ancient Greek models of mixed constitution and the Roman Republic, biblical rule, the Church, and medieval government. In addition to his translation of this important and radical medieval political treatise, written around 1300, James M. Blythe includes a sixty-page introduction to the work and provides over 1200 footnotes that trace Ptolemy's sources, explain his references, and comment on the text, the translation, the context, and the significance.

Author : Gabriele Pedullà
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 26,53 MB
Release : 2018-08-30
Category : History
ISBN : 1107177278

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Reconstructs the origins of the idea that social conflict, and not concord, makes political communities powerful.