Six books on the state
The extensive work Six Books on the State or Les six livres de la République appeared in 1576 and is the main work of the jurist Jean Bodin . It is considered to be the first work of political theory of interest in French and one of the founding texts of political science. It propagates the state ideal of a monarchy that should be legitimized and curbed by certain factors, but ultimately grant the monarch absolute sovereignty . The background to their time of origin is the second decade of the so-called religious wars , the civil wars between Protestants and Catholics. The civil wars broke out in 1562 after the accidental death of King Heinrich II and could not be resolved. The monarchy under the young kings Franz II. (1559/60), Karl IX. (1560–1574), Heinrich III. (1574–1589) and her dominant mother, Katharina von Medici (died 1589), acted indecisively. However, the monarchy often sided with the Catholics and thus lost its function and legitimacy as the highest arbitration body in the eyes of many French.
Attachment of the font
The text was also intended as a refutation of the monarchists , mostly belonging to the Protestant camp , who, for religious and political reasons, questioned the princes' claim to sole power and their unrestricted sovereignty and pleaded for quasi-democratic forms of government. In the foreword, Bodin also criticizes the state philosopher Machiavelli , who, with his theory that a prince only has to pursue the welfare of his state in his actions, ultimately propagates a tyrannical rule.
While Bodin presents general structural elements of the state in the first three books, in the two following books he describes specific characteristics under certain historical and geographical conditions. In the sixth book, he pleads for harmony and justice in a well-ordered legitimate monarchy. In between, however, he repeatedly takes up different aspects of his state theory in various chapters.
The six books on the state , in addition to the theoretical considerations of the state, also have an encyclopedic character; about two thirds of the work consist of historical examples with which Bodin supports his views. Despite its enormous size, the work, originally written in French, reached a large readership and was reprinted and supplemented several times within a few years. In 1586 a revised and expanded version in Latin was published by Bodin.
content
First book: State, family, citizens and sovereignty
Bodin defines the state as "by the lawful government , endowed with sovereign power, of a large number of families and what they have in common." The main characteristics of the state are thus the sovereignty , understood as the highest authority, the existence of families and the things shared by families. In addition, the state must have sufficient territory for all residents to feed, accommodate and protect them.
For Bodin, a family is the lawful management of persons subordinate to the head of the family, including their property. For him, the family is at once the origin and foundation of the state, and the management of the household by the head of the family should be a model for the state for government affairs. Just as there is a private area where the landlords exercise authority over women, children and servants, there must also be a public area that belongs to the state and over which the sovereign rules. In public, the heads of families appear as equals among equals and become citizens, that is, “free subjects ” who are under the power of the sovereign. Bodin counts women, children, slaves and strangers among the unfree subjects.
Bodin understands sovereignty to be the highest authority in the state, which is characterized in particular by the unrestricted right to legislate. The sovereignty is exercised absolutely and permanently by the ruler ; the citizens have to obey the commands of the sovereign, whom Bodin regards as the governor of God on earth . Only God and the laws of nature stand above the sovereign ruler .
The estates may advise the ruler and make recommendations, but the ultimate decision-making power rests with the sovereign. As a legislator, he is basically not bound by compliance with his own laws, but for political reasons, according to Bodin, he should adhere to them. However, no citizen can demand compliance with the law from the ruler. He is only bound by contracts with other sovereign princes and is obliged to keep public promises he has made to subjects. Further restrictions on his authority arise in the area of taxes and private property. Except in emergency situations, even the sovereign may not freely impose taxes on the people or confiscate a subject's property.
In the first book, Bodin lists various characteristics and rights of princely sovereignty, to which, in addition to the aforementioned right to enact unlimited laws for everyone and everyone, etc. a. The right to decide about war and peace, to appoint the highest officials, to be the highest legal instance, to dispose of pardons, to demand loyalty and allegiance, to mint coins, to determine weights and measures and to grant privileges counts. In return, the sovereign ruler is obliged to guarantee the security of his subjects, their property and their families internally and externally.
Second Book: Forms of State and Government
Depending on who holds the sovereignty, Bodin distinguishes between three different forms of government: “If the sovereignty lies with a prince alone, we speak of a monarchy; if the whole people participate, let's call this state a democracy; if only a part of the people has it, the state is called an aristocracy . ”Unlike older state theorists such as Plato or Cicero , Bodin rejects the view that there can be mixed forms of these three forms of government. According to Bodin, only the form of government can be different in one of the three forms of government. He differentiates between legitimate, despotic and tyrannical states. Also z. For example, a monarchy can be governed democratically without having the form of democracy . This is the case when the sovereign prince grants his subjects public offices and honors, regardless of their performance or wealth.
| sovereign | |
| One | monarchy |
| Few | aristocracy |
| All | democracy |
| legitimate rule |
| despotic rule |
| tyrannical rule |
As an advocate of the monarchy, Bodin puts his main focus on the forms of government of the monarchy. He equates the ideal state with the legitimate monarchy, where the subjects follow the laws of the prince and the prince in turn adheres to the laws of nature, and natural freedom and the right to property are guaranteed. In a despotic monarchy, the ruler has become master of his subjects through a war of conquest and now rules over them like the head of the family over his slaves. Bodin speaks of a tyrannical monarchy when the prince disregards the laws of nature and seizes the property of his people. He describes a tyrant as someone who has risen to become a sovereign ruler out of his own power without choice, succession or a just war . Even if the latter violates natural and divine law and commits atrocities of all kinds, Bodin does not grant the subjects the right to rise up against a sovereign tyrant, since otherwise they would be guilty of high treason . Only a foreign sovereign may take action against a tyrant and bring him to justice, the subject can only refuse the tyrannical ruler by fleeing, hiding or committing suicide.
Even if Bodin repeatedly campaigns for the legitimate monarchy in his Six Books on the State , because of his practical state activity he is aware that even a godly and noble ruler as a sovereign, who only knows God about himself, has difficulty in office can maintain his virtue.
Third book: magistrates and deputies of the sovereign
The third book deals mainly with the possibilities of the sovereign to delegate his power to representatives, the so-called magistrates, in order to be able to exercise his rule everywhere. “The magistrate receives its power first from God and then from the sovereign prince, to whose laws he is always bound. The individual subjects recognize after God [...] their sovereign prince, his laws and magistrates, each in his area of responsibility. "
As long as the order of the prince does not violate natural law, the magistrates are obliged to obey the will of the ruler. The magistrates owe absolute obedience to the sovereign and, in turn, can give instructions to subjects. They should control that citizens obey the law and ensure law and order in the cities and provinces. If the subjects violate the law set by the sovereign, they have the power to condemn and punish citizens.
Fourth book: Founding a state, change and decline
Bodin thinks of the time before the formation of the state as a natural state shaped by the struggle of families , similar to the formula later coined by Thomas Hobbes of the struggle of all against all. At Bodin, however, the decisive actors are the heads of the families, i.e. the men who head and rule over a family. It is not the individuals who fight each other in the natural state, but the families fight against each other and make alliances with one another.
In Bodin's theory, “a state arises through the power of the strongest or through the consent of the one who voluntarily submit to the others while giving up their freedom.” Either a state is brought into being through violence or the weak submit to the stronger in order to to be protected and defended by them. The establishment is followed by the phase of ascent, in which the state protects itself internally and externally against enemies and dangers. Little by little it increases in power until it reaches a perfect state, the heyday. Since, according to Bodin, there are three different forms of government , there are six possibilities for government change: from monarchy to democracy or vice versa; from monarchy to aristocracy or vice versa; from aristocracy to democracy or vice versa. The same applies to the change in government forms. As the causes of the change in a state, Bodin et al. a. an unregulated succession, which brings with it a struggle of the powerful for state power, social unrest due to an unjust distribution of goods, extreme political ambition of a group, indecent behavior by the ruler as well as cruelty and oppression by tyrannical power.
Bodin regards religion as an important factor in a stable state , which provides a foundation for the power of the sovereign ruler, for the execution of the law, the obedience of the subjects and the respect of the magistrates. He does not speak out in favor of a specific (Christian) religion, even if he notes that there can only be one truth, one God and one religion. However, the greatest superstition is less bad than atheism .
Fifth Book: The Nature of Peoples, Revolutions and Wars
In the fifth book on the state, Bodin et al. a. the peculiarities and differences of the peoples and what these mean for the construction of the state structures: “It is necessary that a wise state management knows exactly the disposition and character of the people before any changes to the state and the laws are considered. Because one of the most important foundations, perhaps even the most essential basis of states, is the alignment of edicts and ordinances with the nature of the place, the people and the time. "
The main reason for revolutions, according to Bodin, is the unequal distribution of wealth in the state, which is why a wise sovereign should seek equality of property for his subjects in order to create a source of peace. On the other hand, equality of goods could also lead to resentment and controversy among the citizens, since in order to be able to achieve this state of affairs one would have to expropriate some of the rich and distribute their property to the poor. Bodin therefore only speaks out in favor of the state correcting extreme inequality.
Although Bodin advises the leaders of the state to only train their subjects to be warriors in emergencies, because soldiers hate peace, he advocates limited armed service by the citizens in order to protect the state from attackers. As the best means to protect one's own state from internal unrest or even a civil war, he recommends the creation of an external enemy against whom the citizens are forced to act together.
Sixth book: The advantages and disadvantages of the forms of government
In the last part of his main work, Bodin goes into more detail on what all citizens have in common, to which he u. a. the public finances, the national property, the national debts, the taxes and duties as well as the coinage count.
In addition, he again discusses in detail the advantages and disadvantages of the three aforementioned forms of government. In his eyes, what speaks in favor of democracy at first glance is that it privileges no one and makes everyone equal. Everyone has access to public office and common property of the state. However, according to Bodin, the absolute equality of all human beings contradicts historical experience and the laws of nature, which make some wiser and more leadership-oriented and others weaker and more submissive. In addition, the administration of the common property is in a bad way, since no state has as many laws and magistrates as a democracy and private property is communitized, which violates divine commandments. Basically, Bodin regards the large number of rulers in a democracy as its greatest disadvantage.
The advantages of an aristocratic form of government, on the other hand, are for Bodin that the sovereign authority of command falls only to the nobles, rich and / or the most virtuous, but here, too, the disadvantage is that power has to be shared among the aristocracy.
Bodin sees the only disadvantage of a monarchy compared to a democracy or aristocracy in the succession to the throne, since with the death of the monarch the sovereignty must pass to his successor, whereas aristocracies and democracies as institutions are immortal. The death of the monarchical sovereign can lead to armed conflicts. To avoid such conflicts, Bodin pleads for the hereditary monarchy. Apart from that, the legitimate monarchy avoids all the mistakes of the other two forms of government and thus presents itself to Bodin as the only true and best form of government. Only one can truly be sovereign in the state and make final decisions, which history and natural laws would prove. However, this does not rule out that aristocratic or democratic forms of government cannot be used in a monarchical form of government; on the contrary, they are even desired: “A wise king therefore follows the idea of harmony in the government of his kingdom and carefully connects nobles and commoners, empires and arms [...]. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jean Bodin: About the State . Selection, translation and afterword by Gottfried Niedhart. Reclam, Stuttgart, 2005. p. 8.
- ↑ Jean Bodin: About the State , p. 47.
- ↑ Jean Bodin: About the State , p. 66.
- ↑ Jean Bodin: About the State , p. 70.
- ↑ Jean Bodin: About the State , p. 96.
- ↑ Jean Bodin: About the State , p. 116.
expenditure
- About the state . Translated by Gottfried Niedhart . Ditzingen: Reclam, 1986, ISBN 3-15-009812-2
- Respublica, That is: Thorough and right underweysung, or actual report, in which it is reported in detail how not only the regiment should be ordered ... Everything outside of the divine, as worldly rights, [...] written in six books [...] . Mümpelgard 1592. ( digitized version )
literature
- Henning Ottmann : History of Political Thought, Vol. 3, Die Neuzeit. Teilbd. 1. From Machiavelli to the great revolutions . Stuttgart 2006, pp. 213-230.
- Wolfgang EJ Weber: Jean Bodin, Six books on the state (1576) . In: Manfred Brocker (Ed.): History of political thinking. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 2007, pp. 151-166.