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113-416: Johannes Althusius (1563-1638), is considered the father of modern federalism, along with Montesquieu . In 1603, Althusius first described the bases of this political philosophy in his Politica Methodice Digesta, Atque Exemplis Sacris et Profanis Illustrata . By 1748, in his treatise The Spirit of Law , Montesquieu (1689-1755) observed various examples of federalist governments: in corporate societies, in

226-539: A confederacy and a unitary state . The U.S. Constitution was written as a replacement for the Articles of Confederation , under which the United States was a loose confederation with a weak central government. In contrast, Europe has a greater history of unitary states than North America, thus European "federalism" argues for a weaker central government, relative to a unitary state. The modern American usage of

339-766: A confederation , (see "pathway" graphic re regional integration or regional separation). Federalism may encompass as few as two or three internal divisions, as is the case in Belgium or Bosnia and Herzegovina . In Canada , federalism typically implies opposition to sovereignty movements—most commonly the question of Quebec separatism . In 1999, the Government of Canada established the Forum of Federations as an international network for exchange of best practices among federal and federalizing countries. Headquartered in Ottawa ,

452-612: A condition originally granted in exchange for the Kingdom of Bavaria 's agreement to join the German Empire in 1871. The constitutions of Germany and the United States provide that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government are retained by the states. The Constitution of some countries, like Canada and India , state that powers not explicitly granted to the provincial/state governments are retained by

565-539: A country's national and provincial/state governments. However, the term federalist comprises various political practices that differ in important details among the (so-called) federalist nations—some of which are democratic in name only (e.g., modern Russia )—leaving the terms "federalist", "federalism", "federation", etc., dependent on context. And, because the term federalization also proclaims distinctive political processes, its use also depends on context. Typically, political theory today discusses two main types of

678-642: A federal political system out of political associations that were grounded in the free initiative of citizens. Althusius relied on the neo-Platonian idea of a universal brotherhood, thus he combined the Greco-Roman ideal of an association that was governed by reciprocal relationships with the Catholic Christian principled of subsidiarity . Althusius' teachings presented an alternative to the theories of his contemporary Jean Bodin on sovereignty . According to Althusus, natural law gave citizens

791-528: A federation is formed at two levels: the central government and the regions (states, provinces, territories), and little to nothing is said about second or third level administrative political entities. Brazil is an exception, because the 1988 Constitution included the municipalities as autonomous political entities making the federation tripartite, encompassing the Union, the States, and the municipalities. Each state

904-402: A federation, the division of power between federal and regional governments is usually outlined in the constitution . Almost every country allows some degree of regional self-government, but in federations the right to self-government of the component states is constitutionally entrenched. Component states often also possess their own constitutions which they may amend as they see fit, although in

1017-664: A local count, he attended the Gymnasium Philippinum in Marburg from 1577 and began his studies in 1581, concentrating in law and philosophy. He first studied Aristotle in Cologne , then studied law around 1585/86 under Denis Godefroy at Basel . In 1586, Althusius received his doctorate in civil and canon law from the University of Basel . While studying at Basel, Althusius lived with Johannes Grynaeus for

1130-406: A majority of the states or cantons. In Australia, this latter requirement is known as a double majority . Some federal constitutions also provide that certain constitutional amendments cannot occur without the unanimous consent of all states or of a particular state. The US constitution provides that no state may be deprived of equal representation in the senate without its consent. In Australia, if

1243-438: A mechanism (a safeguard) against the possibilities of rebellion or war—or the rise of repressive government via a would-be dictator or a centralized oligarchy . Proponents of federal systems have historically argued that the structures of checks-and-balances and power-sharing that are inherent in a federal system reduces threats—both foreign and domestic. And federalism enables a state to be both large and diverse , by mitigating

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1356-561: A multi-state setting—with the concept termed a "federal union of states", as situated on the pathway (sprectrum) of regional-integration or regional-separation . Examples of federalism today, i.e., the federation of a central/federal government with regional sub-unit governments, include: Argentina , Australia , Austria , Belgium , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Brazil , Canada , Ethiopia , Germany , India , Iraq , Malaysia , Mexico , Micronesia , Nepal , Nigeria , Pakistan , Russia , Somalia , South Sudan , Sudan , Switzerland ,

1469-661: A particular region or regions. In Spain, the Basques and Catalans , as well as the Galicians , spearheaded a historic movement to have their national specificity recognized, crystallizing in the "historical communities" such as Navarre , Galicia , Catalonia , and the Basque Country . They have more powers than the later expanded arrangement for other Spanish regions, or the Spain of the autonomous communities (called also

1582-748: A period of time, with whom he studied theology. After completing his studies in 1586, Althusius became the first professor of law at the Protestant-Calvinist Herborn Academy of Nassau County. From 1592 to 1596, he taught at the Calvinist Academy in Burgsteinfurt/Westphalia. He was married in 1596 in Siegen to Margarethe Neurath (born 1574), with whom he had at least six children. In 1599 he

1695-416: A private body corporate. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the theory of the state as an artificial body politic in the 1851 case Cotton v. United States , declaring that "every sovereign State is of necessity a body politic, or artificial person, and as such capable of making contracts and holding property, both real and personal", and differentiated the United States' powers as a sovereign from its rights as

1808-523: A proposed amendment will specifically impact one or more states, then it must be endorsed in the referendum held in each of those states. Any amendment to the Canadian constitution that would modify the role of the monarchy would require unanimous consent of the provinces. The German Basic Law provides that no amendment is admissible at all that would abolish the federal system. It has been argued that federalism and other forms of territorial autonomy are

1921-530: A state and provides only limited regional sovereignty, anarchist federalism as envisioned by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon is stateless, providing every autonomy with absolute sovereignty and distinct individuality. The Swiss constitution , in its support of indivisibility and nationhood and its view that its cantons are mere territorial divisions rather than sovereign constituencies, is incompatible with anarchist federalism and its principles of free association , decentralization and autonomy . Anarchist federalism

2034-610: A statement that would become accepted international law . The tension between organic understandings of the body politic and theories emphasizing its artificial character formed a theme in English political debates in this period. Writing in 1780, during the American Revolutionary War , the British reformist John Cartwright emphasised the artificial and immortal character of the body politic in order to refute

2147-530: A stronger central government. When the U.S. Constitution was being drafted, the Federalist Party supported a stronger central government, while " Anti-Federalists " wanted a weaker central government. This is very different from the modern usage of "federalism" in Europe and the United States. The distinction stems from the fact that "federalism" is situated in the middle of the political spectrum between

2260-615: A timely theory on procedural federalism. In 1871 most German states unified to form the German Empire under Bismarck's imperial constitution . Gierke's book on Althusian federalism went on to become a source of inspiration for pluralism in Britain, with John Neville Figgis and Harold Laski adapting Gierke. In 1932 the German–American professor Carl Joachim Friedrich published a new, slightly abridged edition of Althusius' Politica . After World War II Friedrich helped to draft

2373-423: A union of guilds , a province was a union of towns, a state was a union of provinces, and an empire was a union of states . Althusius' understanding of society as a community of communities informed his views on the nature of politics and federalism ( consociatio symbiotica ). For Althusius the purpose of politics was the "science of those matters which pertain to the living together" and federations perfectly put

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2486-489: A useful way to structure political systems in order to prevent violence among different groups within countries because it allows certain groups to legislate at the subnational level. Some scholars have suggested, however, that federalism can divide countries and result in state collapse because it creates proto-states. Still others have shown that federalism is only divisive when it lacks mechanisms that encourage political parties to compete across regional boundaries. Federalism

2599-495: A weapon, was the realm's justice. The body's feet were the common people. Each member of the body had its vocation , and each was beholden to work in harmony for the benefit of the whole body. In the Late Middle Ages , the concept of the corporation , a legal person made up of a group of real individuals, gave the idea of a body politic judicial significance. The corporation had emerged in imperial Roman law under

2712-402: A wider readership. In 1968 Althusisus was credited as "the real father of modern federalism" by Daniel J. Elazar . Johannes Althusius saw confederations as feasible and successful cooperative constitutional orders. In his view, a confederation could be built on successive levels of political community where each community pursues common interests. A village was a union of families, a town was

2825-720: Is corps-état ; contemporary French uses corps politique . The Western concept of the "body politic", originally meaning a human society considered as a collective body, originated in classical Greek and Roman philosophy . The general metaphor emerged in the 6th century BC, with the Athenian statesman Solon and the poet Theognis describing cities ( poleis ) in biological terms as "pregnant" or "wounded". Plato 's Republic provided one of its most influential formulations. The term itself, however—in Ancient Greek , τῆς πόλεως σῶμα , tēs poleōs sōma , "the body of

2938-456: Is "the will of God for men." Althusius contended that terms such as "common law" and "moral law" were other names for natural law. To know the true dictates of natural law, he argued, we must carefully study Scripture and tradition, as well as revelation and reason. Johannes Althusius died on August 12, 1638, in Emden. After his death Althusius remained a controversial thinker. His Politica

3051-412: Is a gradual movement of power from the component states to the centre, as the federal government acquires additional powers, sometimes to deal with unforeseen circumstances. The acquisition of new powers by a federal government may occur through formal constitutional amendment or simply through a broadening of the interpretation of a government's existing constitutional powers given by the courts. Usually,

3164-438: Is a rejection of the statism and nationalism present in modern federations, and instead provides an alternative system of federative organization founded on stateless individuality and autonomy . For anarchists, republican federalism is as oppressive as a centralized, unitary state , for all it is perceived to accomplish is delegate and transfer the perceived oppression of a state to local levels and jurisdictions . In

3277-478: Is divided into municipalities ( municípios ) with their own legislative council ( câmara de vereadores ) and a mayor ( prefeito ), which are partly autonomous from both Federal and State Government. Each municipality has a "little constitution", called "organic law" ( lei orgânica ). Mexico is an intermediate case, in that municipalities are granted full-autonomy by the federal constitution and their existence as autonomous entities ( municipio libre , "free municipality")

3390-497: Is established by the federal government and cannot be revoked by the states' constitutions. Moreover, the federal constitution determines which powers and competencies belong exclusively to the municipalities and not to the constituent states . However, municipalities do not have an elected legislative assembly. Federations often employ the paradox of being a union of states, while still being states (or having aspects of statehood ) in themselves. For example, James Madison (author of

3503-489: Is federated, vs. only part of their territory is federated. Some systems are national while others, like the European Union , are supra-national. Two extremes of federalism are notable: 1) at one extreme, the strong federal state is almost completely unitary, with few powers reserved to local governments; 2) at the opposite extreme, the national government may be a federation in name-only, while actually operating as

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3616-491: Is represented by an equal number of senators irrespective of the size of its population. Alternatively, or in addition to this practice, the members of an upper house may be indirectly elected by the government or legislature of the component states, as occurred in the United States prior to 1913 , or be actual members or delegates of the state governments, as, for example, is the case in the German Bundesrat and in

3729-470: Is said that it has no heir, because it always lives on in itself". From here, the image of the body politic became prominent in the medieval imagination. In Canto XVIII of his Paradiso , for instance, Dante , writing in the early 14th century, presents the Roman Empire as a corporate body in the form of an imperial eagle, its body made of souls. The French court writer Christine de Pizan discussed

3842-514: Is sometimes viewed in the context of international negotiation as "the best system for integrating diverse nations, ethnic groups, or combatant parties, all of whom may have cause to fear control by an overly powerful center." However, those skeptical of federal prescriptions sometimes believe that increased regional autonomy can lead to secession or dissolution of the nation. In Syria , for example, federalization proposals have failed in part because "Syrians fear that these borders could turn out to be

3955-442: Is to directly represent the governments of component states in federal political institutions. Where a federation has a bicameral legislature the upper house is often used to represent the component states while the lower house represents the people of the nation as a whole. A federal upper house may be based on a special scheme of apportionment , as is the case in the senates of the United States and Australia, where each state

4068-520: Is truth." The English term "body politic" is sometimes used in modern legal contexts to describe a type of legal person , typically the state itself or an entity connected to it. A body politic is a type of taxable legal person in British law , for example, and likewise a class of legal person in Indian law . In the United States , a municipal corporation is considered a body politic, as opposed to

4181-477: The Articles of Confederation as the general level of government of the original Thirteen Colonies ; and, later in the United States, the Confederate States of America ). And federalism also differs from the unitary state , where the regional level is subordinate to the central/federal government, even after a devolution of powers—and is notable for regional-integration of governing powers , (e.g.,

4294-484: The British governor of Massachusetts and a proponent of American liberty, drew on Hobbes's theory in his 1752 Principles of Polity to argue that "the whole Body politic" should be conceived as "one Person"; states were "distinct Persons and independent". At around the same time, the Swiss jurist Emer de Vattel pronounced that "states are bodies politic", "moral persons" with their own "understanding and ... will",

4407-502: The Commonwealth presented alternative figurations of the metaphor in defence of the parliamentarian model. James Harrington , in his 1656 Commonwealth of Oceana , argued that "the delivery of a Model Government ... is no less than political Anatomy"; it must "imbrace all those Muscles, Nerves, Arterys and Bones, which are necessary to any Function of a well order'd Commonwealth". Invoking William Harvey 's recent discovery of

4520-535: The Council of the European Union . The lower house of a federal legislature is usually directly elected, with apportionment in proportion to population, although states may sometimes still be guaranteed a certain minimum number of seats. In Canada, the provincial governments represent regional interests and negotiate directly with the central government. A First Ministers conference of the prime minister and

4633-470: The European Union , ultimately leading to the United States of Europe . Although there are medieval and early modern examples of European states which used confederal and federal systems, contemporary European federalism originated in post-war Europe; one of the more important initiatives was Winston Churchill 's speech in Zürich in 1946. In the United States , federalism originally referred to belief in

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4746-533: The First Triumvirate in 59 BC, Cicero described the Roman state as "dying of a new sort of disease". Lucan 's Pharsalia , written in the early imperial era in the 60s AD, abounded in this kind of imagery. Depicting the dictator Sulla as a surgeon out of control who had butchered the Roman body politic in the process of cutting out its putrefied limbs, Lucan used vivid organic language to portray

4859-651: The Latin language using fashionable Ramist logic. As time passed, his political canon was read less and the barriers to interpreting Althusian politics increased. In the second half of the 19th century Althusius was rediscovered when Otto von Gierke published research on Politica . In Germany, an academic society was founded to research Althusius and his times. At a time when Otto von Bismarck worked towards unifying Germany Gierke promoted Althusius' preoccupation with political order based on majority decisions , traditional European relationships, and negotiated agreements as

4972-479: The United Arab Emirates , the United States , and Venezuela . The terms "federalism" and "confederalism" share a root in the Latin word foedus , meaning " treaty , pact or covenant ". Until the late eighteenth century their two early meanings were essentially the same: a simple league among sovereign states , based on a treaty; (thus, initially the two were synonyms). It

5085-462: The United Kingdom ). Federalism is at the midpoint of variations on the pathway (or spectrum) of regional-integration or regional-separation . It is bordered on the increasing-separation side by confederalism, and on the increasing-integration side by devolution within a unitary state; (see "pathway" graphic). Some characterize the European Union as a pioneering example of federalism in

5198-688: The United Provinces of the Netherlands (1579–1795); the German Bund (1815–66); the first American union, known as the Confederation of the United States of America (1781–89); and the second American union, formed as the United States of America (1789-present). Modern federalism is a political system that (nominally) is based upon operating under democratic rules and institutions; and where governing powers are shared between

5311-775: The United States Constitution ) wrote in Federalist Paper No. 39 that the US Constitution "is in strictness neither a national nor a federal constitution; but a composition of both. In its foundation, it is federal, not national; in the sources from which the ordinary powers of the Government are drawn, it is partly federal, and partly national..." This stems from the fact that states in the US maintain all sovereignty that they do not yield to

5424-403: The circulatory system , Harrington presented the body politic as a dynamic system of political circulation, comparing his ideal bicameral legislature , for example, to the ventricles of the human heart. In contrast to Hobbes, the "head" was once more dependent on the people: the execution of the law must follow the law itself, so that " Leviathan may see, that the hand or sword that executeth

5537-571: The economy . Consequently, anarchist federalism, promoting widespread, common ownership over the means of production , detests the centralized and unequal nature of capitalism , and the hierarchy of its companies and corporations : an anarchist federalist society would envisage widespread, federalized wealth distribution . Comparing republican and anarchist federalism, James Guillaume states that Switzerland 's federative cantonal system , despite its direct democracy , differs significantly from anarchist federalism: while Swiss federalism retains

5650-489: The polis bringing villages together, and in cities themselves forming confederations . In the modern era Federalism was first adopted by a union of the states of the Old Swiss Confederacy as of the mid-14th century. Federalism differs from confederalism , where the central government is created subordinate to the regional states—and is notable for its regional-separation of governing powers, (e.g.,

5763-542: The "body politic" took on a jurisprudential significance by being identified with the legal theory of the corporation , gaining salience in political thought from the 13th century on. In English law the image of the body politic developed into the theory of the king's two bodies and the Crown as corporation sole . The metaphor was elaborated further from the Renaissance onwards, as medical knowledge based on Galen

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5876-407: The "coffee for everyone" arrangement), partly to deal with their separate identity and to appease peripheral nationalist leanings, partly out of respect to specific rights they had held earlier in history. However, strictly speaking Spain is not a federation, but a system of asymmetric devolved government within a unitary state. It is common that during the historical evolution of a federation there

5989-454: The Crown as an ordinary corporation aggregate, that is, a corporation of many people, with a view to describing the legal personhood of the state. A related but contrasting concept in France was the doctrine termed by Sarah Hanley the king's one body, summarised by Jean Bodin in his own 1576 pronouncement that "the king never dies". Rather than distinguishing the immortal body politic from

6102-577: The Forum of Federations partner governments include Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and Switzerland. The governments of Argentina , Australia , Brazil , India , and Mexico , among others, are organized along federalist principles. In Europe , "federalist" is sometimes used to describe those who favor a common federal government, with distributed power at regional, national and supranational levels. The Union of European Federalists advocates for this development within

6215-525: The French laws of succession as established by the "whole civic or mystical body of the realm", and the Parlement of Paris in 1489 proclaimed itself a "mystical body" composed of both ecclesiastics and laymen, representing the "body of the king". From at least the 14th century, the doctrine developed that the French kings were mystically married to the body politic; at the coronation of Henry II in 1547, he

6328-667: The German Holy Roman Empire as a commonwealth were the majority could decide matters for all. In reference to Aristotle , Althusius examined the confederate institutions of the Holy Roman Empire and established a theory of federalism where power is shared among autonomous smaller and larger political communities. Althusius was Calvinist and did not hold Thomas Aquinas 's theory on the commonwealth in high regard. In 1603 Althusius published Politica Methodice Digesta , setting out his theory on building

6441-726: The German constitution, known as Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany , while working as adviser in Allied-occupied Germany . Friedrich praised Althusius for having written the first "full-bodied concept of federalism" and so generated renewed interest in Althusius on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1964 Frederick Smith Carney published an abridged English translation of Politica , exposing Althusius to

6554-714: The Latin corpus politicum exist in other European languages. The term body politic derives from Medieval Latin corpus politicum , which itself developed from corpus mysticum , originally designating the Catholic Church as the mystical body of Christ but extended to politics from the 11th century on in the form corpus reipublicae ( mysticum ), "(mystical) body of the commonwealth". Parallel terms exist in other European languages, such as Italian corpo politico , Polish ciało polityczne , and German Staatskörper ("state body"). An equivalent early modern French term

6667-533: The Law is in it, and not above it". In Germany, Samuel von Pufendorf recapitulated Hobbes's explanation of the origin of the state as a social contract, but extended his notion of personhood to argue that the state must be a specifically moral person with a rational nature, and not simply coercive power. In the 18th century, Hobbes's theory of the state as an artificial body politic gained wide acceptance both in Britain and continental Europe. Thomas Pownall , later

6780-573: The Laws of England (1765), summarised the doctrine of the king's body politic as it subsequently developed after the Restoration : the king "in his political capacity" manifests "absolute perfection "; he can "do no wrong", nor even is he capable of " thinking wrong"; he can have no defect, and is never in law "a minor or under age". Indeed, Blackstone says, if an heir to the throne should accede while "attainted of treason or felony", his assumption of

6893-527: The Members ", told in relation to the first secessio plebis , the temporary departure of the plebeian order from Rome in 495–93 BC. On the account of the Roman historian Livy , a senator explained the situation to the plebeians by a metaphor: the various members of the Roman body had become angry that the "stomach", the patricians , consumed their labours while providing nothing in return. However, upon their secession, they became feeble and realised that

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7006-507: The Senate ), was overlaid upon the pre-existing regional governments of the thirteen independent States. With each level of government allocated a defined sphere of powers, under a written constitution and the rule of law (that is, subject to the independent third-party arbitration of a supreme court in competence disputes), the two levels were thus brought into a coordinate relationship for the first time. In 1946, Kenneth Wheare observed that

7119-473: The Union and the Member States as concurrent powers are retained by the constituent States. Where every component state of a federation possesses the same powers, we are said to find 'symmetric federalism'. Asymmetric federalism exists where states are granted different powers, or some possess greater autonomy than others do. This is often done in recognition of the existence of a distinct culture in

7232-536: The United States, the meaning of federalism shifted, now referring uniquely to the novel compound-political form established at the Philadelphia Constitution Convention —while the meaning of confederalism remained as a league of states. In a narrow sense, federalism refers to the mode in which the body politic of a state is organized internally—and this is the meaning most often used in modern times. Political scientists, however, use

7345-462: The basis of a federal society, constituent entities of an anarchist federation are ideally autonomous and self-determining, collaborating equally, freely and mutually within the federation through the values of solidarity and autonomy . Unlike a republican federation, federalism, in anarchy, is not simply a form of political division or devolution , but rather, federative principles apply to all aspects of society, including social relations and

7458-538: The bodies in 1608, he noted that it was the "natural body" of the king that was created by God—the "politic body", by contrast, was "framed by the policy of man". In the Case of Prohibitions of the same year, Coke denied the king "in his own person" any right to administer justice or order arrests. Finally, in its declaration of 27 May 1642 shortly before the start of the English Civil War , Parliament drew on

7571-493: The body politic. For Baldus, not only was man, in Aristotelian terms, a "political animal", but the whole populus , the body of the people, formed a type of political animal in itself: a populus "has government as part of [its] existence, just as every animal is ruled by its own spirit and soul". Baldus equated the body politic with the respublica , the state or realm, stating that it "cannot die, and for this reason it

7684-596: The body's head, and the analogy may also be extended to other anatomical parts, as in political readings of Aesop 's fable of " The Belly and the Members ". The image originates in ancient Greek philosophy , beginning in the 6th century BC, and was later extended in Roman philosophy . Following the high and late medieval revival of the Byzantine Corpus Juris Civilis in Latin Europe,

7797-430: The bottom-up, from the periphery to the centre. Higher-order units are merely the direct expression of lower-order units delegating, combining and coordinating. Though there is no central government or administration, higher-order committees and councils , composed of delegates from federal constituencies, may convene under a popular, revocable mandate . Embracing the principle of free and voluntary association as

7910-666: The concept at length in her Book of the Body Politic (1407). The idea of the body politic, rendered in legal terms through corporation theory, also drew natural comparison to the theological concept of the church as a corpus mysticum , the mystical body of Christ . The concept of the people as a corpus mysticum also featured in Baldus, and the idea that the realm of France was a corpus mysticum formed an important part of late medieval French jurisprudence. Jean de Terrevermeille  [ fr ] , around 1418–19, described

8023-445: The constitution of the United States must be ratified by three-quarters of either the state legislatures, or of constitutional conventions specially elected in each of the states, before it can come into effect. In referendums to amend the constitutions of Australia and Switzerland it is required that a proposal be endorsed not just by an overall majority of the electorate in the nation as a whole, but also by separate majorities in each of

8136-584: The creation of an entirely new system of government that provided for democratic representation at two governing levels simultaneously, which was implemented in the US Constitution . In the United States implementation of federalism, a bicameral general government, consisting of a chamber of popular representation proportional to population ( the House of Representatives ), and a chamber of equal State-based representation consisting of two delegates per State (

8249-688: The crown "would purge the attainder ipso facto ". The king manifests "absolute immortality": "Henry, Edward, or George may die; but the king survives them all". Soon after the appearance of the Commentaries , however, Jeremy Bentham mounted an extensive attack on Blackstone which the historian Quentin Skinner describes as "almost lethal" to the theory: legal fictions like the body politic, Bentham argued, were conducive to royal absolutism and should be entirely avoided in law. Bentham's position dominated later British legal thinking, and though aspects of

8362-594: The decline of the Roman Republic as a literal process of decay, its seas and rivers becoming choked with blood and gore. The metaphor of the body politic remained in use after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The Neoplatonist Islamic philosopher al-Farabi , known in the West as Alpharabius, discussed the image in his work The Perfect State (c. 940), stating, "The excellent city resembles

8475-617: The doctrine of the king's two bodies, the conventional image of the whole of the realm as a body politic had also remained in use in Stuart England: James I compared the office of the king to "the office of the head towards the body". Upon the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, however, parliamentarians such as William Bridge put forward the argument that the "ruling power" belonged originally to "the whole people or body politicke", who could revoke it from

8588-469: The early development of federalism in the 16th and 17th centuries and the construction of subsidiarity . Johannes Althusius was born in 1563 to a family of modest means in Diedenshausen , County Sayn-Wittgenstein ( Siegen-Wittgenstein ), a Calvinist County in what is now the state of North Rhine Westphalia (but was then the seat of an independent Grafschaft or County). Under the patronage of

8701-461: The event of conflict the federal constitution usually takes precedence. In almost all federations the central government enjoys the powers of foreign policy and national defense as exclusive federal powers . Were this not the case a federation would not be a single sovereign state, per the UN definition. Notably, the states of Germany retain the right to act on their own behalf at an international level,

8814-466: The exclusion of female heirs to the crown—since, they argued, the king of France was a "virile office". In the ancien régime , the king's heir was held to assimilate the body politic of the old king in a physical "transfer of corporeality" upon his accession. James I in the second charter for Virginia, as well as both the Plymouth and Massachusetts Charter , grant body politic. Aside from

8927-731: The federal government. Much like the US system, the Australian Constitution allocates to the Federal government (the Commonwealth of Australia) the power to make laws about certain specified matters which were considered too difficult for the States to manage, so that the States retain all other areas of responsibility. Under the division of powers of the European Union in the Lisbon Treaty , powers which are not either exclusively of Union competence or shared between

9040-437: The federalization process: According to Daniel Ziblatt , there are four competing theoretical explanations for adopting a federal system: Immanuel Kant noted that "the problem of setting up a state can be solved even by a nation of devils"— if they possess a constitution that pits opposing factions against each other with a durable system of binding checks and balances . Essentially, particular states may use federation as

9153-615: The federation by their own consent. This was reaffirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which reserves all powers and rights that are not delegated to the Federal Government as left to the States and to the people. The structures of most federal governments incorporate mechanisms to protect the rights of component states. One method, known as ' intrastate federalism ',

9266-436: The glossators' 13th century successors, the commentators —especially Baldus de Ubaldis —to develop the idea of the corporation as a persona ficta , a fictive person, and apply the concept to human societies as a whole. Where his jurist predecessor Bartolus of Saxoferrato conceived the corporation in essentially legal terms, Baldus expressly connected the corporation theory to the ancient, biological and political concept of

9379-421: The immortal "King body politic". Upon the "demise" of an individual king, his body natural fell away, but the body politic lived on. This was an indigenous development of English law without a precise equivalent in the rest of Europe. Extending the identification of the body politic as a corporation, English jurists argued that the Crown was a " corporation sole ": a corporation made up of one body politic that

9492-472: The judges held that it could not: the king's "Body politic, which is annexed to his Body natural, takes away the Imbecility of his Body natural". The king's body politic, then, "that cannot be seen or handled", annexes the body natural and "wipes away" all its defects. What was more, the body politic rendered the king immortal as an individual: as the judges in the case Hill v. Grange argued in 1556, once

9605-522: The king had made an act, "he as King never dies, but the King, in which Name it has Relation to him, does ever continue"—thus, they held, Henry VIII was still "alive", a decade after his physical death. The doctrine of the two bodies could serve to limit the powers of the real king. When Edward Coke , Chief Justice of the Common Pleas at the time, reported the way in which judges had differentiated

9718-497: The kingdom, which exists as a corpus mysticum governed by one man as head. In Tudor and Stuart England , the concept of the body politic was given a peculiar additional significance through the idea of the king's two bodies , the doctrine discussed by the German-American medievalist Ernst Kantorowicz in his eponymous work . This legal doctrine held that the monarch had two bodies: the physical "king body natural" and

9831-399: The monarch. The execution of Charles I in 1649 made necessary a radical revision of the whole concept. In 1651, Thomas Hobbes 's Leviathan made a decisive contribution to this effect, reviving the concept while endowing it with new features. Against the parliamentarians, Hobbes maintained that sovereignty was absolute and the head could certainly not be "of lesse power" than the body of

9944-483: The mortal body natural of the king, as in the English theory, the French doctrine conflated the two, arguing that the Salic law had established a single king body politic and natural that constantly regenerated through the biological reproduction of the royal line. The body politic, on this account, was biological and necessarily male, and 15th century French jurists such as Jean Juvénal des Ursins argued on this basis for

10057-401: The name universitas , and a formulation of the concept attributed to Ulpian was collected in the 6th century Digest of Justinian I during the early Byzantine era . The Digest , along with the other parts of Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis , became the bedrock of medieval civil law upon its recovery and annotation by the glossators beginning in the 11th century. It remained for

10170-450: The people; against the royal absolutists, however, he developed the idea of a social contract , emphasising that the body politic—Leviathan, the "mortal god"—was fictional and artificial rather than natural, derived from an original decision by the people to constitute a sovereign. Hobbes's theory of the body politic exercised an important influence on subsequent political thinkers, who both repeated and modified it. Republican partisans of

10283-406: The perfect and healthy body, all of whose limbs cooperate to make the life of the animal perfect". John of Salisbury gave it a definitive Latin high medieval form in his Policraticus around 1159: the king was the body's head; the priest was the soul; the councillors were the heart; the eyes, ears, and tongue were the magistrates of the law; one hand, the army, held a weapon; the other, without

10396-407: The provincial premiers is the de facto highest political forum in the land, although it is not mentioned in the constitution. Federations often have special procedures for amendment of the federal constitution. As well as reflecting the federal structure of the state this may guarantee that the self-governing status of the component states cannot be abolished without their consent. An amendment to

10509-543: The purpose of politics into practice. Althusius's federalism did not involve the surrendering of power , instead it rested on responsibly sharing power. Althusius became one of the principal European thinkers on federalism at the start of the 17th century while the European continent was ravaged by religious wars . Against the backdrop of the Reformation and the rise of absolutist monarchies , Althusius identified

10622-402: The right to resist tyrannical government and sovereignty rested with the community, not the ruler. Therefore Althusius maintained that legitimate political authority was founded on smaller communities. Body politic The body politic is a polity —such as a city , realm , or state —considered metaphorically as a physical body. Historically, the sovereign is typically portrayed as

10735-725: The risk of a central government turning tyrannical. Countries around the world have implemented federal systems using variations of central and regional sovereignty for their governments. For convenience of studying these governments, they may be divided according to several catagories, such as: minimalistic federations, which consist of only two sub-federal units (subunits); as compared to multi-regional federations, consisting of three or more regional governments (subunits). Or, based on their body polity type: emirate, provincial, state, republicanism or constitutional monarchy , democratic—or democratic in-name-only . And, federal systems may be differentiated between those whose entire territory

10848-430: The same as the ones that the fighting parties have currently carved out." Johannes Althusius Johannes Althusius (1563 – August 12, 1638) was a German–French jurist and Calvinist political philosopher . He is best known for his 1603 work "Politica Methodice Digesta, Atque Exemplis Sacris et Profanis Illustrata" which revised editions were published in 1610 and 1614. The ideas expressed therein relate to

10961-462: The state"—appears as such for the first time in the late 4th century Athenian orators Dinarch and Hypereides at the beginning of the Hellenistic era . In these early formulations, the anatomical detail of the body politic was relatively limited: Greek thinkers typically confined themselves to distinguishing the ruler as head of the body, and comparing political stasis , that is, crises of

11074-520: The state, to biological disease. The image of the body politic occupied a central place in the political thought of the Roman Republic , and the Romans were the first to develop the anatomy of the "body" in full detail, endowing it with nerves, "blood, breath, limbs, and organs". In its origins, the concept was particularly connected to a politicised version of Aesop 's fable of " The Belly and

11187-403: The stomach's digestion had provided them vital energy. Convinced by this story, the plebeians returned to Rome, and the Roman body was made whole and functional. This legend formed a paradigm for "nearly all surviving republican discourse of the body politic". Late republican orators developed the image further, comparing attacks on Roman institutions to mutilations of the republic's body. During

11300-686: The term federalism in a much broader sense, referring instead to a "multi-layer or pluralistic concept of social and political life." The first forms of federalism took place in ancient times, in the form of alliances between city states. Some examples from the seventh to second century BC were the Archaic League , the Aetolic League , the Peloponnesian League , and the Delian League . An early ancestor of federalism

11413-437: The theory of the body politic would survive in subsequent jurisprudence, the idea of the Crown as a corporation sole was widely critiqued. In the late 19th century, Frederic William Maitland revived the legal discourse of the king's two bodies, arguing that the concept of the Crown as corporation sole had originated from the amalgamation of medieval civil law with the law of church property. He proposed, in contrast, to view

11526-728: The theory to invoke the powers of the body politic of Charles I against his body natural, stating: What they [Parliament] do herein, hath the Stamp of Royal Authority, although His Majesty seduced by evil Counsel, do in His own Person, oppose, or interrupt the same. For the King's Supreme Power, and Royal Pleasure, is exercised and declared in this High Court of Law, and Council, after a more eminent and obligatory manner, than it can be by any personal Act or Resolution of His Own. The 18th century jurist William Blackstone , in Book I of his Commentaries on

11639-412: The two levels of government in the US were "co-equally supreme". In this, he echoed the perspective of American founding father James Madison who saw the several States as forming "distinct and independent portions of the supremacy" in relation to the general government. In anarchism , federalism is a horizontalist and decentralized organizational doctrine which holds that society should be built from

11752-399: The use of biological analogies in conservative rhetoric. Arguing that it was better conceived as a machine operating by the "due action and re-action of the ... springs of the constitution" than a human body, he termed "the body politic" a "careless figurative expression": "It is not corporeal ... not formed from the dust of the earth. It is purely intellectual; and its life-spring

11865-597: The word is much closer to the European sense. As the power of the U.S. federal government has increased, some people have perceived a much more unitary state than they believe the Founding Fathers intended. Most people politically advocating "federalism" in the United States argue in favor of limiting the powers of the federal government, especially the judiciary (see Federalist Society , New Federalism ). The contemporary concept of federalism came about with

11978-573: Was appointed president of the Nassau College in its temporary location in Siegen , returning with it to Herborn in 1602. At the same time he began his political career by serving as a member of the Nassau (Germany) county council. For the next several years Althusius was involved in several colleges in the area, variously serving as their president and lecturing on law and philosophy. In 1603 he

12091-584: Was at the same time the body of the realm and its parliamentary estates, and also the body of the royal dignity itself—two concepts of the body politic that were conflated and fused. The development of the doctrine of the king's two bodies can be traced in the Reports of Edmund Plowden . In the 1561 Case of the Duchy of Lancaster , which concerned whether an earlier gift of land made by Edward VI could be voided on account of his "nonage", that is, his immaturity,

12204-403: Was attacked by Henning Arnisaeus and Hugo Grotius during the 17th century for its defense of local autonomies against the rise of territorial absolutism and proponents of the modern united nation state . Interest in Althusius' theories continued into the second half of the 17th century, but Althusius was forgotten once the European wars of religion had ended. Althusius had published in

12317-431: Was challenged by thinkers such as William Harvey . Analogies were drawn between supposed causes of disease and disorder and their equivalents in the political field, viewed as plagues or infections that might be remedied with purges and nostrums . The 17th century writings of Thomas Hobbes developed the image of the body politic into a modern theory of the state as an artificial person. Parallel terms deriving from

12430-465: Was elected as a municipal trustee of the city of Emden , in East Frisia , where he ultimately made his fame. He became a city Syndic in 1604, which placed him at the helm of Emden's governance until his death. In 1617 Althusius published his principal judicial work, Dicaeologicae . In this work, he categorized laws into two main types: natural laws and positive laws, and argued that natural law

12543-399: Was in this sense that James Madison referred to the new US Constitution as "neither a national nor a federal Constitution, but a composition of both"—i.e., constituting neither a single large unitary state nor a league/confederation among several small states, but a hybrid of the two forms—according to Madison; "The Federalist No. 39" . Notably, in the course of the nineteenth century in

12656-401: Was said to have "solemnly married his realm". The English jurist John Fortescue also invoked the "mystical body" in his De Laudibus Legum Angliae (c. 1470): just as a physical body is "held together by the nerves", the mystical body of the realm is held together by the law, and Just as the physical body grows out of the embryo, regulated by one head, so does there issue from the people

12769-653: Was the Achaean League in Hellenistic Greece . Unlike the Greek city states of Classical Greece , each of which insisted on keeping its complete independence, changing conditions in the Hellenistic period drove city states to band together even at the cost of surrendering part of their sovereignty. Subsequent unions of states included the first and second Swiss Confederations (1291–1798 and 1815–48);

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