Modern State Political Theory: Power and Legitimacy

Political Theory of the Modern State

Medieval political thought was modernized and adapted to the new scenario. The political theory of the modern state does not ignore the moral and theological components characteristic of the Middle Ages.

Machiavelli's work on ethical considerations about such things as legitimate power and good governance gives way to the stark description of the mechanisms of politics. We found two different perspectives: one ethical, centered on the origin, nature, and limits of political power; the other, more empirical, descriptive, and innovative, focused on what is portrayed and how it works.

Legitimate and Sovereign Power

The theory of power in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is very rich. This results in the recovery of an imperial Roman concept, that of sovereignty, which will apply to the King. European monarchs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are presented to their kingdoms as a supreme source of power that recognizes no superior. The formulation of the concept of sovereignty is found in the sixteenth-century French works by Jean Bodin, who defined it as "the absolute and perpetual power of a republic." It can only occur in the monarchy, and he clarifies that a power, to be absolute, must be indivisible. Concentrated power in the monarch now dominates political thought.

Bodin requires sovereign power, to be legitimate, to respect limits such as divine right, fundamental laws, and the natural rights of subjects. This brings together the main elements of three schools of thought on legitimate power in modern Europe.

Iusnaturalism in the 17th Century

Iusnaturalism was developed by Protestant philosophers. A breach of the ruling involves the breaking of a covenant between him and his subjects. This scheme is the starting point of British liberal thought with the work of John Locke, who specifies those natural rights of subjects, of which the monarch cannot provide. The idea of incorporation will also find any development. The most remarkable theorization of the necessity of absolute power is that of Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan. His state of nature, pre-social, is a state of war in which force is the only valid argument and security. "Man is a wolf to man," the most common fear is the fear of losing one's life. The state was created to overcome it, at the price of the renunciation of men to their former freedom. The State is composed of all individuals but has a single head and a single sword: the king. This is arrived at through a social pact. Within the state, peace is possible in this way. Among the states, the Queen's lack of submission to a single power is peaceful.

Respect of Divine Right

This is a classic point of the theory of a theocentric time after all. The sixteenth century is the century of Europe and the Counter-Reformation, which started the great war of religion. Roman Christianity breaks. The relationship between politics and religion is addressed by libels and treaties.