French European Political

Organizations

Environment and Social Influences

• Security of a society, based on order and predictability is a fundamental need of people.

• Patterns of ideas, beliefs, and values which act as criteria for decision making are known as paradigms.

• Paradigms help people to perceive and understand certain aspects of society and the role of people within the society.

• When a society undergoes fundamental change another set of social relationships, or paradigms, must be developed so that individuals understand their relationship to the larger society.

• During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries France underwent a series of crises:

• Bad weather and disease• Warfare• Religious schism• Crime• Social unrest

• Renaissance society was engaged in establishing a centralized sovereignty which would change the power relationships from the more personal relationships based on homage and interdependence of feudal society to more impersonal ones based on competition, centralization, and order.

• Feudal society was unable to respond to the various crisis and so a new society generally called the Renaissance evolved.

• The Renaissance occurred due to a shift in the paradigm of society, which was forced on the society by the crises of the time.

Political and Social Relationships

• Hierarchy is the belief that certain people and/or groups are believed to have special abilities and responsibilities for the well being of society.

• In tern, these people or groups are granted special powers or privileges to carry out these responsibilities

• Machiavelli laid out the Renaissance perspective.• Human beings are selfish and interested only in

advancing their own interests.• Because society is basically immoral, a prince may

find it necessary to be immoral for the good of the whole community.

• The test of a good government was whether it was effective, whether the ruler increase his power.

• In Machiavelli’s Renaissance society:• Sovereignty was the power to make and enforce

decisions about any matter that was recognized to be within a defined jurisdiction.

• Gaining and preserving power was the most significant goal a prince representing a state could aspire to.

• Chaos and anarchy was the greatest threat to society because it would destroy the ability of the state to maintain sovereignty.

• The theoretical justifications for assigning authority and sovereignty within the state was also applied to social organizations such as marriage and the family.

• Patriarchy, the social system in which males hold primary power in areas of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, control of property, as well as in the domain of the family, became common practice.

• Just as noblemen found themselves forced into a dependent role on the monarch so women found themselves in a position of dependency and accepting domination form husbands and male relatives.

• Therefore, women found themselves removed from public affairs – economic, political, and cultural.

The Centralization of Power

• Centralizing power by giving it to the elite is often seen as the most effective way of restoring order to society.

• A state is sovereign when it possesses control over the systems of justice and the use of force within a society.

• In an absolutist state all organizations within its jurisdiction are considered subordinate to its authority.

• In an absolutist state sovereignty is embodied in the ruler who is not restrained or checked by any other legal authority.

• Richelieu’s policy was the subordination of all groups and class to the French monarchy.

• In France, the centralization of power by the monarchy was facilitated by the activities of Louis XIII’s chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu.

• Richelieu was willing to use extreme measure to strengthen the king’s absolute power. He executed nobles who opposed the king and allied Catholic France with various Protestant states.

• Societies are made up of competing interest groups each with a power base (resources, numbers, organization) wan each desiring decisions that will satisfy their needs and wants.

• Societies must manage conflict in some way because unresolved conflict is destructive to the social system.

• Louis XIII died in 1643, leaving the five year old Louis XIV on the throne. Between the years 1643 and 1661, his mother Anne and Cardinal Mazarin were the effective rulers of France.

• The growing power of the monarchy was challenged by the nobility in 1648. A twelve year civil war call the Fonde, resulted.

• The Fonde:• Represented the last effort of the French nobility

to oppose the monarchy by force.• Was triggered by the anger at having to give the

monarchy new ways of raising taxes.• Made Louis XIV determined to never allow the

monarchy to be threatened by the nobility.

• At age twenty-three, Louis assumed full power. Louis XIV was to personify the absolute monarch. During his reign he centralized power and once proclaimed that “I am the state.”• All power was held by the king with the nobility

excluded from the ancient right of advising the king.

• Middle class bureaucrats were selected to administer the government because they were no threat to the king.

• The Estates General was never called.• A powerful, centralized bureaucracy, secret

police, and a system of informers were created to maintain control of society.

Several flaws in Louis XIV’s system of government existed:•Inability to raise money to support the government because of:• the reliance on tax farming• The agreement no to tax the nobility in return for non-

interference in government

•The inability to accept religious differences which culminated with the revocation of the Edict of Nates.

• The expense and extravagance of Louis XIV’s government as exemplified by:• His wars• The Palace of Versailles

• These lead to increased tension between Louis XIV and the general French society.

New Philosophical Paradigms

• In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries philosophers began to offer new paradigms for dealing with the organization and control of society.

• These new ideas began to give French society ideas for options to the paradigm of the day.

Hobbes

• Humans are born with passion and reason.• Human passion leads to state of war within society.• Reason suggests that peace is a better way of life.• Peace can only be a reality if every person agrees to

give up the right to govern themselves and to give absolute power to an individual or group who will legislate peace.

• The choice for society is between absolute power or complete anarchy.

Locke

• The human mind is like a blank tablet at birth.• Human development is determined by education

and social organizations, for good or evil.• The purpose of government is to protect the

‘natural rights’ of life, liberty, and property.• Citizens have the natural right to rebel against a

government which does not respect their rights.• There is no inborn cultural differences between

people, especially men and women.

Montesquieu

• Focused on the conditions that promote liberty and prevent tyranny.

• Despotism could be avoided by dividing and sharing political power among a diversity of classes and groups.

• A strong independent upper class was especially important to prevent the abuse of power.

• In order to prevent the abuse of power, “it is necessary that by the arrangement of things, power checks power.”

Voltaire

• Believed that the best humanity could hope for was a good monarch.

• Did not believe in social equality. Women (as all people) should be treated well in a civilized society, but is should also be recognized that women have special attributes which fit them for special roles.

• The only feasible equality would be based on that “by which the citizen only depends on the laws which protect the freedom of the feeble against the ambition of the strong.”

Rousseau

• Was passionately committed to individual freedom.• Believed the human mind is like a blank tablet at

birth.• Saw reason and civilization as destroying rather

that freeing the individual.• Believed that any society would generate a general

will which was sacred and absolute and which reflected the common interests of the people.

• Believed that women, having a responsibility to society for child rearing, should be educated.

• During this historical period, a number of political philosophers such as Rousseau and Locke, believed that society had evolved from an ancient past in which man lived in a natural and unspoiled state.

• The paradigms offered by Locke and others challenged the existing centralized power arrangement inherent in the absolute monarchy.

• While these new paradigms did not result in immediate restructuring of European societies, these new visions had in fact been actualized in a non-European setting. The indigenous peoples of North America had created societies which closely mirrored many equalitarian elements of the new European paradigms.

• In Indigenous societies, Locke and Thomas Jefferson saw a society which respected the ‘natural rights’ of humans. The importance of public opinion in regulating decision-making and maintaining the egalitarian nature of Indian society was noted.

• The Indigenous societies were constructed on the basis of a perception of the social order which fundamentally differed from the prevailing European view.

• The allotting of power to specific persons was associated with specific responsibilities and tasks. Upon completion of the tasks the allocated power was withdrawn.

• Power and authority was generally not viewed as permanent and no institutionalized hierarchy was established.

• The allocation of power based on specific tasks, the absence of a permanent hierarchy and a sense of equality distinguished the Indigenous social order from traditional European political structure.

• As European society began to question the traditional structures, these new ideas became more appealing to a larger segment of the general population.