PLCP 3110: Politics of Western Europe

Weber: State as "a human community that claims the monopoly of legitimate use of physical force within a given territory" - attributes legitimacy, notes public bureaucracy (legal order), power of decision-making authority.
Politics as "any activity in which the state might engage itself in order to influence the relative distribution of force"
Weber - politics as a process of allocation (internal definition of rule)

1. A nobility that becomes commercially oriented and uses a market-based mode of commercial organization
2. A peasantry that is weakened and unable to radicalize
3. A fusion between the nobility and the bourgeoisie
4. The fusion occurs in OPPOSITION to the crown, not through it

Poggi reading - system of rule using estates to confront and cooperate with ruler. Motivated by economic interests and trade, and security. Beginning foundations of codified rule

Estate - legal category, rights and duties
Class - economic category, defined by possession of or exclusion from market resources
3 estates of Middle Ages: 1. Clergy, 2. Nobility, 3. Peasants and town citizens
Classes from later periods: working class, middle class, bourgeoisie (from Industrial Revolution onwards)

Feudalism is a type of government in which political power was treated as a private possession and was divided among a large number of lords.
Its significance relates to its role in the formation of states - set the stage for Standestaat and absolutism (transformation of feudalism - ownership of land by the community). Also contributed to rise of towns
Feudal contract - relationship between lords and vassals who are dependent on lord for protection. Vassal promises loyalty in exchange for fief (piece of land) - PRIVATE nature of political power, reciprocity, dependency, asymmetry, mutual obligations by both

The concentration of powers of rule in the person of ruler (single monarch) - governs society by private interests. Under this system of rule, the legal system shifts in favor of the ruler, the political institutions become more physical and public (codes, documents, courts, etc.). System of rule arose after the Standestaat between 16th and 17th century.

A social revolution is not limited to a political transformation (regime change) - also involves fundamental change in social structures. Either through deliberate action (redistribution of land) or change in social factors (like increasing power of one social group). Redistribution of power! English Revolution was NOT a social revolution. The role of the State is CRUCIAL in the social revolutionary process.

Enclosures were the removal of land from cultivation to let sheep graze - these evictions occured from the 13th - 19th century through "legal" means. Massive social dislocation (peasantry is weakened and pushed into cities) - urban growth, cheap labor in cities, explains why English nobles moved toward market-based mode of commercial organization - Driven by wool trade, facilitated social revolution that occurred in Great Britain

English social structure - Gentry were the lower nobility below the nobility but above the yeomen (included knights). They kept order in the countryside - in France, they were partners with landed aristocracy to exploit peasantry. The yeomen were free, they owned land but farmed - were above serfs. They were the chief force behind peasant enclosures.

1. Class system/conflict - EG was unrepresentative of classes, peasant revolt against nobility
2. Wars and fiscal dilemma - inefficient tax system
3. Calling of the Estates-General - capitalist bourgeoisie now on political stage, old system dissolved - left dominant class vulnerable to social revolt by peasants

"No bourgeois, no democracy" - Moore claims that the bourgeoisie is not an actor, but that it helps shape the political outcome. Although the bourgeoisie may be necessary to start a democratic republic, it is not enough by itself (ex. French revolution - bourgeoisie gained from revolution, but it did not guarantee democracy - monarchy was reestablished soon after)

Walzer, Stone readings - during English Civil War, two groups differed on question of private property. Diggers were a group of Protestant communists who wanted rural egalitarian communities with complete redistribution of land. Levellers were part of political movement that supported reforms, extended franchise, religious tolerance - all based rights on property ownership.

Preconditions: instability of Tudor polity (financial crisis, unfavorable policies, expansion of absolutism, no army) and development of disequilibrium (economic growth, instability of social change, new ideas of Calvinism, rise of gentry (social mobility)
Precipitants: economic growth, long-term government credit, citizen reactions to royal policies, codified system of law
Triggers: government collapse in 1640, Irish Rebellion, government bankruptcy, Puritans and Parliament (propaganda), loss of armed forces, destruction of 3 landmarks, 1660 - restoration of old order

Occurred throughout the 1640s, conflict arose out of conflicts between Stuart kings and Parliament, as well as religious conflicts. Economic and fiscal issues, and social/religious cleavages, Calvinism played a crucial role against the monarchy (equality and social mobility) (Stone and Walzer) Civil war demonstrated the progressive history of Europe

1688 (Stone) Protestantism versus Catholicism, Parliament was split (court versus country); significance: Bill of Rights in 1689 ratified the Revolutio of 1688 and put an end to constitutionals battles (reaffirmed rights of Parliament, guaranteed property rights and rule of law) Anglicism remained Church of England - reaffirmed political domination of gentry (whose interests Parliament represented above all - elites shaped British politics in 18th century