This famous engraving that the French artist Abraham Bosse created for the first edition (1651) of Thomas Hobbes Leviathan has been since then the best visualization of what the "state" means. A crowned figure handing a sword -as a symbol of power- on its right hand, and a sceptre in its left-symbolizing sovereignty- with on top the inscription "Non est potestas super terram quae comparetur ei" (There is no power on earth to be compared to him), extracted from the Bible, concretely from the Book of Job 41, 24.
In today's blog entry we will study the Teaching guide number 2 of your materials, dealing with the origins of the Western State. The word "State" in its actual sense was used for the first time by Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), the famous author of The Prince, a set of recipes of how to remain in power, disregard to any considerations concerning legality or legitimity. A training manual for heads of State or Government.
After having understood the idea of "nation" as a powerful fiction, a useful narrative to make as many people as possible to believe they belong to the same human body leading them to act together beyond their own individuality, the state is a much more abstract concept. This is why initially the idea of State was embodied in the person of a King, as a sole repository of power, that is a monarch: from the Greek words "monos" (one) and "cratos" (power). In fact the king, as Bosse's engraving suggests, visually is integrated by a multitude of individuals (the "nation"). But the state does not appeal to cultural or linguistic identity or feelings as "nation" does. The State appears as an "organization" that overcome the explosion of power caused by the Feudal model of society. The kings no longer rule over a "nation" (german or roman) but over a whole territory, and the royal status came to be hierarchically posited above all social powers: nobility, the clergy,local oligarchies,cities, religious sects. Kings became the only responsibles to maintain the order created by God.
Philip II Augustus (1179-1223) was not called any longer "Rex Francorum" but "Rex Franciae". And ruling over an expanding territory required a strong and developed administration with specialized "officials", a permanent and professional army and an institutionalized body of royal judges. And this costed money that Royal administrators levied from taxes. The result of all this was that the power of the king increased exponentially.
What you will find surprising is that this rising power of European monarchs was not contested by the population. The French Revolution has portrayed absolute monarchs as tyrants. This was not true. Absolutism as a concept was not widely opposed and the monarch's supreme authority went largely unquestioned. Why? Because the rising power of the kings did pacify largely everyday life as opposed to the highly unstable times of Feudality. Monarchical authority dominated all the dissenting groups and bodies who so far had aspired to play a political role. People all over Europe started realizing that royal absolute governments were more orderly and efficient than the previous ones under feudalism. The State appeared for "practical" reasons.
On top of that, Absolute monarchs were instilled with the mercantilist ideas of the Modern Age which endorsed the protection of "national economies" and favored the promotion of "national" prosperity. Of course this was above all true concerning the Bourgeois elites of merchants, bankers and manufacturers and most of the populations were less happy. But on the whole they were far better off with a strong monarchy that gave the usually far more legal security that nobles in the scattered feudal society.
This is why this "national monarchies"that started in the Latter Middle Ages (XI to XV centuries) and had their Golden age during the XVI and XVIIth consolidated the "state" that Machiavel had discovered intuitively, and will ruin definitely the Universal Model in the period 1648-1776 as we will see next week. The Westphalia Treaty of 1648 that put and end to the horrid religious conflict calle the Thirty year war opened up the European political space to an Europe of "states" in which popes and emperors had very little to do.
EXERCISING:
You should start reading pages 17 to 24, including the footnotes, and try to understand concepts and answer the questions of pages 27 and 28. Do it by handwriting in your Class Notebook.
You should start reading pages 17 to 24, including the footnotes, and try to understand concepts and answer the questions of pages 27 and 28. Do it by handwriting in your Class Notebook.
Concerning the dates of pages 25: the most important ones are: 966, 978, 1151, 1223, 1270, 1348, 1461, 1513, 1651 and 1661, as they are crucial to our history. Read carefully as well the other ones in order to get the whole picture of the evolution of the National monarchies. Look especially to the different Assemblies of Estates. Think of the difference between the words "estate" and "State".
On the other hand I would like you to continue reading about education. Please proceed further with the text of Abraham Flexner "The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge" in pages 321-324 and read Steve Job's Speech of June 2005 (Text nr. 7) in pages 340 to 344.
Be ready to discuss all this in class.
