Jean Bodin Les Six Livres de la Republique Renaissance Era
Biography of Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin is a great thinker on state and law from France, who was also heavily influenced by conditions during the renaissance era.
Jean Bodin lived 1530-1596.
Jean Bodin is a realistic person like Niccolo Machiavelli.
Jean Bodin lived in an atmosphere of absolutist government system under the rule of Henri IV.
This is a new form of government that was completely unknown in the Middle Ages and which gave it a special character of statehood in the New historical age.
Here, however, individualism will quickly be replaced by a new form, which is collectivism, which will immediately put an end to individualism altogether.
The rule of absolutism under the reign of Henri IV has been going on for a long time, from 1589 - 1610, so it has strong roots in the French constitutional system.
So of course the important changes in power relations are formulated and justified in a juridical scientific form.
This is what Jean Bodin did in his book: "Les Six Livres de la Republique".
It was published in 1576. In effect, Jean Bodin's teachings only provided a juridical basis for absolute power under Henri IV's reign.
Similar to Niccolo Machiavelli, Jean Bodin also stated that the goal of the country is power.
Jean Bodin's definition of the State is as follows :
The state is the whole of families with all their possessions, which are governed by the reason of a sovereign ruler.
So like Aristotle, Jean Bodin argued that the family is the origin or basis of the state, both according to logic and according to history.
State power requires limiting freedom of action according to nature.
In that family, there is pater familias as the head of the family, he carries out restrictions in the family.
The basis of society is instinct, while the basis of the state is power.
In the beginning there was only one family, then the other families joined and formed a unity, therefore they could together defend themselves well.
And in that state also the freedom of nature disappears.
At this point, Jean Bodin's opinion is the same as Aristotle.
However, furthermore, the opinion is different, namely regarding the first leader or ruler.
According to Aristotle, the first ruler was elected by the people. Meanwhile, according to Jean Bodin, the first ruler was a military leader who demonstrated his power.
In accordance with his opinion about the purpose of the state, Jean Bodin said that the state is the embodiment of power.
To strengthen his opinion, Jean Bodin then formulated the meaning of sovereignty.
Sovereignty is the highest power over citizens and people, without any restrictions from the law.
In its formulation or a more firm definition, it also contains the meaning of the state and the power of the king.
The king is not bound by statutory powers. The king is the one who sets the laws.
What is meant by law is positive law, so it is not God's law or natural law.
It is necessary to remember that in fact, regarding the notion of sovereignty in the history of thinking about the state and law, there has never been a unity of opinion.
In the sense that each scholar provides the definition of sovereignty according to his own opinion.
Also, whether the meaning of sovereignty is the same as sovereigniteit.
According to Jean Bodin, sovereignty is the highest power to make laws in a country, which are :
- Single. This means that only the state owns. So in that country there are no other powers that have the right to determine or make laws, or laws.
- Original. This means that power does not come from other powers. So it is not passed down or given to other powers. So, for example, a province or municipality does not have sovereignty, because the power over to it is not genuine, because it is obtained from the center.
- Immortal. This means that it is the state that has the highest power or sovereignty, which in Jean Bodin's opinion, the state is eternal.
- Cannot be divided. This means that sovereignty cannot be transferred to other people or bodies, either partially or completely.
Jean Bodin's conception of the notion of sovereignty actually has a weakness, which, although this has been realized by Jean Bodin himself, is that Jean Bodin did not separate the meaning of state and government. This is a weakness of Jean Bodin's theory, because then it means that state sovereignty is the same as government sovereignty.
Since government is not eternal, this means that it contradicts the eternal element of sovereignty in the theory.
Earlier it was said that this was actually realized by Jean Bodin, the point was that there was, namely: Jean Bodin wanted to establish an absolute central government, and this could only be carried out in government, in this case the king.
Why is that ? The reason is that the state is an abstract meaning, while the government or king has a concrete meaning. So in the end it is this king who has sovereignty, with the understanding that the king must be able to overcome the chaos in the country.
Thus Jean Bodin gave the king absolute power, as was the case with Machiavelli.
So it is not surprising that Jean Bodin did not approve of the existence of a representative body that had power beside the king.
Jean Bodin can only accept it if the representative body consists of a class or caste and which only has the power to give advice to the king.
Jean Bodin makes no distinction between state and government.
Because this distinction allows the emergence of various forms of government, and thus the sovereignty will be exercised in various ways.
Since Aristotle has traditionally distinguished the forms of Monarchy, Aristocracy and Democracy. Jean Bodin was completely ignorant of mixed forms.
The best form for him is a hereditary monarchy, where only men can rule. It's the only form of state.
The influence of Jean Bodin's teachings was immense, not only in France, where kings were given a juridical support or basis for their political endeavors, and expanded and strengthened their powers.
Also in England, Jean Bodin's teachings were very well received.
But what is clear about Jean Bodin's teachings has strengthened the emergence of a government system that is absolute.
This made Jean Bodin a genuine and powerful thinker. And that lays the foundations of thought for centuries to come.
It's just that from his teachings there is another weakness, namely that Jean Bodin did not dare to completely remove God's law and natural laws from his very positive system, even though the intended elimination was necessary.
Therefore, it is not clear how the relationship between the sovereign king and the two laws was.
It does not at all turn out that there is a right from the people to the king to base their power on God's law or natural law.
These two laws have no meaning at all in positive law.
Then the general opinion arose that the absolute power of the king was the law of God, so that the king was not responsible at all to his people, except to be responsible to God in the afterlife.
What is clear as a result of the dispute, namely the dispute between God's law and the absolute rights of the king is the emergence of an absolute government system that began in 1572 which would continue until the 17th century.
This absolute government system will later be opposed and will be limited by the Monarchomaken on the basis of religious teachings.
