Week 1: History of Constitutionalism/Revolutions and
Constitutions
Key Concepts:
● Popular sovereignty, royal sovereignty
● Pouvoir constituant, pouvoir constitué; constituting power, constituted power
Europe in the end of 15th century
Start at the end of the 15th century, and more precisely the 1480s and 90’s in Europe.
Europe was the birthplace of thinking on politics, the concept of state, and cohability. Only
later where those ideas spread all across the world.
The reason for which Europe became so successful where numerous factors that led to that
point. By the end of the century, Europe was turned upside down in the way people began to
view reality. Before the end of the 15th century, all of Europe was ruled by Christianity, and
more precisely, Roman Catholicism. The Pope was the undisputed spiritual leader of the
West. Alongside him, the other most important figure was the emperor, Charlemange of the
Holy Roman Empire, but he was a Christian as well.
Exceptions to the rule existed in the South of Spain as well as the Balkans; there were
Muslim territories which back then were not regarded as part of the European territory. In the
East, in Constantinople there were orthodox Christians. Jews as well disregarded
Christianity and refused to enter Jesus into their souls.
However, Catholicism prevailed. The central focal points of the religion were found in
Jerusalem and Rome, where the Pope and the emperors were crowned.
Shift
Change happened at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century. That's when
Europeans like Marco Polo left to ‘discover the world’ which they had no idea about
previously. As sailors went outside of the bounds of Europe, they were heavily surprised by
what they saw. They discovered Asia, the continent of South America. They came across
Islam. In India, they noticed that there was a relationship between the European languages
and the ones of India. This indicated to them that in the past, they already must have been in
some contact with each other, so the 15th century Europeans couldn’t have been the first
explorers there. Some revolutionary ideas were also developed like the fact that the world is
a sphere and not a flat.
Religious Crisis
The discovery of the printing press was a revolutionary invention because it became
possible to spread information by writing it down. Since everybody was able to type, even
people who didn't know how to read, it became possible to spread information by bringing it
somewhere else. This created an economy of scale for education and communication. This
was met with censorship by the Catholic church, because ideas became propagated that
stood against the ones propagated by the church. That was the first time that censorship
was necessary, and the monks started to control information. People could only read
,materials which were stamped by the church to be allowed to read by catholics. Obviously,
the reason for that censorship was so that people would not get the wrong ideas.
However, there were local rulers who decided to look at science for political reasons. In
addition, even people who make up the church tend to question ideas (human nature). This
lead to an even bigger spread of the ‘foul ideas’ across the population regardless of the
censorship.
Kalvin and Martin Luther wanted to reform the church which led to the reformation. The
reformation could be depicted geographically because Europe became split into three parts:
North of Europe (Scandinavia, North of Germany, Netherlands) which went for the
reformation, South of Europe (Spain, Portugal, South of France) which stayed mostly
catholic and the region in the middle (England, France, and parts of the Netherlands) which
were mixed, some went with the reformation and some stayed with the Church.
The Bible was unclear in the sense that the government did not want to uphold the sword in
vein. On one hand, the bible said that everyone should respect the emperor and the state
because every political state is ordained by god. Even if you don’t believe what the ruler
believes in, you have to obey him. On the other hand, the Bible also said that you should
obey god above anybody else. This creates a dissonance, because what if the god goes
against god's commands. This was the main cause of many political and civil wars breaking
out. Germany experienced the 30 years war, Netherlands had its 80 years war, the French
had their troubles and French Revolution. All of this was because people disagreed with
the point of view of the ruler.
This caused people to ponder about how to deal with the crises. This led to the creation of 4
schools of thought by Jean Bodin, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau and John
Locke.
Jean Bodin
Jean Bodain was one of the legal scholars working for the French King. He was thinking of
how to bring safety, peace and stability back to France. Since the power of the King was no
longer efficient (it was met with civil unrest), it had to be changed. Bodin came up with the
idea of sovereignty. Sovereignty served as a solution for how people who do not believe in
religion, still obey the king. Sovereignty would be absolute; there would be nothing above it,
perpetual; couldn’t be divided or given away, and eternal. Bodin’s idea of sovereignty for the
purpose of the French King was unlimited, meaning that the power of a sovereign can only
be given to one person and prevails over any other legislation.
Alongside of the king’s sovereignty, the public powers would not be property of the singular
ruler, but would be treated abstractly as the powers of the state, and they could not be given
away.
Bodin’s concept of the sovereign was accepted and started spreading around Europe. It was
good for the time because it created conditions that made absolute monarchies possible,
and also unified.
*Louis XIV described himself as the sun king because just like everything revolves around
the sun, so does his power.
Thomas Hobbes
Hobbes was an Englishman who came 2 generations after Bodin. He came up with the
concept of political science, because he tried to apply the laws of mathematics and physics
to the state. He used Descartes' premise, “I think and I am aware of the fact that I think, I
, exist, and the environment I live in exists as well”, to depict that humans have
consciousness. He said that in the state of nature, human beings are not naturally
designed to live together, and that they are inclined to kill each other. The state of nature
ends when the people enter into a social contract with the state. They transfer their freedoms
to the sovereign, and by doing that, authorize his actions. The sovereign should have the
power to save us from our state of nature. The social contract cannot be overridden.
In Hobbes’s eyes sovereignty comes from our will. It could also be a collective body but it
goes to one single ruler.
In order for that to happen, the government has to be strong in order to be effective. He
neutralized and separated the concept of state from the concept of religion, he made it so
that obeying a state does not depend on religious statements. At the same time he made it
so that a state can declare when a religious miracle has happened because the people can
have opinions but have to accept it, simultaneously having the right to not believe in it.
According to Hobbes, people should obey laws because they are given by relevant
authorities, as they have the power to prescribe the law in the first place.
Hobbes said that the social contract with the state can only end when the state tries to kill
you. If that happens, the social contract is broken and people have the right to resist.
Through his theory, he defended the right to life and the right to freedom of consciousness.
John Locke
Locke had a more optimistic view on humanity then Hobbes did. He justified it through the
fact that even though sometimes there is conflict and war, there are also period of prosperity.
According to him, people should want to live in a state/political society because authorities
are needed for money to work, there is protection of property, and rights like life, liberty and
estate.
Locke was of the view that citizens should be able to influence the government through
voting. He also argued that not all powers should be in the hands of one, there should be
separation of powers into legislative, executive and federative = power to conclude
international agreements. Just like Hobbes, he said the state should have its limits, being
that the citizens should be able to resist if the state oversteps its boundaries.
Montesqueie
He said that people have different opinions on what is good so there should not just be one
formula to define what a good state is. He accidentally introduced separation of powers even
though it was first thought of by Locke.
Rousseau
Russeau introduced the Contrat Social. He theorized that a man is born free and he finds
himself in chains everywhere. So in order to gain security, he must give up his natural
freedom to gain civil freedom and protection in return. He aimed to find a system of
government which will protect everyone while remaining free.
The boundaries created by the political laws should be seen as a framework within which
liberty takes place. It shall be a framework within which one can look at personal freedom,
because freedom is a moral thing, making the state and freedom equilateral.
In order for that to be achieved, laws should be general, completely equal and enacted
through a procedure in which citizens are taking place. This makes a society possible
because citizens are virtuous. We are citizens because we are converted towards each
