Medieval
Christianity: St. Augustine, City of God 5th
C AD
state as punishment for sin (original sin of Adam)
natural law of divine origin:
hierarchical universe, “Great Chain of Being”
Medieval
feudal monarchy:
Limitations on power of king by nobles, church
Estates represent corporate social bodies:
clergy, nobility, bourgeoisie
consent to taxation, legislation
Medieval
genre of advice to princes: idealized image of ruler
Speculum principis, or “mirror for princes”
displays virtues of the “good Christian king”
Renaissance
realism: Machiavelli, The Prince 1513
separation of politics from religious virtue
stability of state as highest value
autonomy of political sphere
16th-17th
C: Religious theory of revolution against tyrants
Calvinist origins: French Huguenots in French Wars of Religion 1562-1589
English Puritans in Civil War 1640-1689
17th
C: Divine Right of Kings
traditional descending theory of power from above
re-asserted by monarchs: England Stuarts
France
Louis XIV
17th
C: Contract theories of government
ascending
theory of origin of state by agreement from below
based on theoretical concepts of state of nature, state of war, social contract
Hobbes, Leviathan 1651 support for absolutism
Locke, Second Treatise of Government 1689 argument for limited, constitutional
govt.