The Political Theory of Johannes Althusius

Abstract

Johannes Althusius (1557-1638) was probably the most outstanding Calvinist statesman and social theorist (after Calvin) before Abraham Kuyper, the noted Dutch journalist, educator, and political leader, who was Prime Minister of The Netherlands at the turn of the 20th Century. Although Althusius was rather weH known and influential in early 17th-Century Europe, he was quickly forgotten, and his work was not brought to light again untill880 by Otto von Gierke in his /ohannes Althusius und die Entwicklung der naturrechtlichen Staatstheorien. 1 In 1932 Carl J. Friedrich republished most of Althusius' important Latin work, Politica Methodica Digesta, with a long, English introduction to his life and thought. 2 Then in 1964, Frederick S. Carney presented an excellent abridged translation of this same work, also with a helpful introduction. 3 In these volumes one can find the background and details of Althusius' life, so I shall not repeat those matters here, except to say that Althusius, a German, lived and studied in Germany and Switzerland before being called to an important governmental post (Syndic) in the city of Emden in East Friesland in 1604. The first edition of his Politics had been published just before his call to Emden, but he produced new editions of it, as well as other works, during the rest of his life in that city. Rather than attempt a full discussion of the background of, and influences upon, Althusius' Politics before getting into it, let us enter this remarkable study and allow his discussion to refer us beyond bis own work. In the prefaces to the first (1603) and third (1614) editions of the Politics, Althusius brings to our attention his concern for delineating the proper field of politicaI science (scientia politica).