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Article: Sovereignty, Theory of
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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SOVEREIGNTY, THEORY OF
SOVEREIGNTY, THEORY OF.
The modern concept of sovereignty owes more to the jurist Jean Bodin (1530
–
1596) than it does to any other early modern theorist. Bodin conceived it as a supreme, perpetual, and indivisible power, marked by the ability to make law without the consent of any other. Its possession by a single ruler, a group, or the entire body of citizens defined a commonwealth as monarchy, aristocracy, or popular state. Without it a commonwealth was not properly a state at all. In his
Six livres de la r
é
publique
(1576; Six books of the commonwealth) Bodin came to favor absolute monarchy, but the legacy of medieval juristic ideas and the ...