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Article: MONARCHY'S CHANGED FACE.
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- June 2, 2000
- Author:
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The Power of Kings
Monarchy and Religion
in Europe, 1589-1715
Paul Kleber Monod
Yale University Press, $35, 417 pp.
In the political sociology of Max Weber, the modernization of political systems is essentially a movement from traditional authority to rational authority. The rule of bureaucracy and abstract law, according to Weber, gradually replaces the personal power of sacred individuals. Kings give way to committees.
In his new book, Paul Kleber Monod, who has previously specialized in the political history of England after 1688, attempts an ambitious Weberian interpretation of the transformation of royal power across Europe. He argues that kings ...