Politica - Hardcover

Johannes Althusius

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0865971145 ISBN 13: 9780865971141

Publisher: Liberty Fund, 1995

Synopsis

Drawing deeply from Aristotle and biblical teaching, Politic presents a unique vision of the commonwealth as a harmonious ordering of natural associations. According to Althusius, the purpose of the state is to protect and encourage social life. The family is the most natural of human associations, and all other unions derive from it. Power and authority properly grow from more local to more general associations.

Of particular interest to the modern reader is Althusius's theory of federalism. It does not refer merely to a division of powers between central and state governments, but to an ascending scale of authority in which higher institutions rely on the consent of local and voluntary associations.

Johannes Althusius (1557–1638) was a German political and legal philosopher.

Frederick S. Carn was Professor Emeritus of Ethics at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.

Daniel J. Elazar is Director of the Center for the Study of Federalism at Temple University and Professor of Political Science at Temple and at Bar Ilan University in Israel.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel J. Elazar (1934-1999) was president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and professor of political science and director of the Center for the Study of Federalism at Temple University. His many books include the four-volume "The Covenant Tradition in Politics" (Transaction).

Edition details

• Publisher: Liberty Fund
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0865971145
• ISBN 13: 9780865971141
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 302