Jean Domat
(1625-1696) was a renowned French jurist in the reign of Louis XIV, the king
who perfected the practice of royal absolutism. Domat
made it his life's task to explain the theory behind this absolutism by setting
French law and social structure into the wider context of the law of nature and
the law of God. Louis XIV regarded Domat's work so
highly that he assigned him a pension, and in effect the royal government
sponsored his publications. Public Law, the treatise that dealt most directly
with the origin of social order and government, and with the rights and duties
of kings, appeared in 1697, the year after Domat's
death.
There is no one who is not
convinced of the importance of good order in the state and who does not
sincerely wish to see that state well ordered in which he has to live. For
everyone understands, and feels in himself by experience and by reason, that
this order concerns and touches him in a number of ways ....
Everyone knows that human
society forms a body of which each person is a member; and this truth, which
Scripture teaches us and which the light of reason makes plain, is the
foundation of all the duties that relate to the conduct of each person toward
others and toward the body as a whole. For these sorts of
duties are nothing else but the functions appropriate to the place each person
holds according to his rank in society.
It is in this principle that
we must seek the origin of the rules that determine the duties, both of those
who govern and of those who are subject to government. For it is through the
place God has assigned each person in the body of society, that He, by calling
him to it, prescribes all his functions and duties. And just as He commands
everyone to obey faithfully the precepts of His law that make up the duties of
all people in general, so He prescribes for each one in particular the duties
proper to his condition and status, according to his rank in the body of which he
is a member. This includes the functions and duties of each member with respect
to other individuals and with respect to the body as a whole.
[Necessity and the Origin of
Government]
Because all men are equal by
nature, that is to say, by their basic humanity, nature does not make anyone
subject to others .... But within this natural
equality, people are differentiated by factors that make their status unequal,
and forge between them relationships and dependencies that determine the
various duties of each toward the others, and make government necessary ....
The first distinction that
subjects people to others is the one created by birth between parents and
children. And this distinction leads to a first kind of government in families,
where children owe obedience to their parents, who head the family.
The second distinction among
persons arises from the diversity of employments required by society, and which
unite them all into a body of which each is a member. For just as God has made
each person depend on the help of others for various needs, He has
differentiated their status and their employments for the sake of all these
needs, assigning to people the place in which they should function. And it is
through these interdependent employments and conditions that the ties binding
human society are formed, as well as the ties among its individual members.
This also makes it necessary to have a head to unite and rule the body of the
society created by these various employments, and to maintain the order of the
relationships that give the public the benefit of the different functions
corresponding to each person's station in life.
***
It is a further consequence
of these principles that, since all people do not do their duty and some, on
the contrary, commit injustices, for the sake of keeping order in society,
injustices and all enterprises against this order must be repressed: which was
possible only through authority given to some over others, and which made
government necessary.
This necessity of government
over people equal by their nature, distinguished from each other only by the
differences that God established among them according to their stations and
professions, makes it clear that government arises from His will; and because
only He is the natural sovereign of men, it is from Him that all those who
govern derive their power and all their authority, and it is God Himself Whom
they represent in their functions.
[The Duties of the
Governed]
Since government is necessary
for the public good, and God Himself has established it, it is consequently
also necessary for those who are subject to government, to be submissive and
obedient. For otherwise they would resist God Himself, and government, which
should be the bond of peace and unity that brings about the public good, would
become an occasion for divisions and disturbances that would cause its
downfall.
The first duty of obedience
to government is the duty to obey those who hold the first place in it,
monarchs or others who are the heads of the body that makes up society, and to
obey them as the limbs of the human body obey the head to which they are
united.
This obedience to him who
governs should be considered as obedience to the power of God Himself, Who has
instituted [the prince] as His lieutenant ....
***
Obedience to government
includes the duties of keeping the laws, not undertaking anything contrary to
them, performing what is ordered, abstaining from what is forbidden,
shouldering public burdens, whether offices or taxes; and in general everyone
is obliged not only not to contravene public order in any way, but to
contribute to it [positively) according to his circumstances.
Since this obedience is
necessary to maintain the order and peace that should unite the head and
members composing the body of the state, it constitutes a universal duty for
all subjects in all cases to obey the orders of the prince, without taking the
liberty of passing judgment on the orders they should obey. For
otherwise, the right to inquire what is just or not would make everyone a
master, and this liberty would encourage seditions. Thus each individual
owes obedience to the laws themselves and [even] to unjust orders, provided he
can obey and follow them without injustice on his own part. And the only exception
that can qualify this obedience is limited to cases in which one could not obey
without disobeying the divine law.
[The Power, Rights, and
Duties of Sovereigns]
The sovereign power of
government should be proportionate to its mandate, and in the station he
occupies in the body of human society that makes up the state, he who is the
head should hold the place of God. For since God is the only natural sovereign
of men, their judge, their lawgiver, their king, no man can have lawful
authority over others unless he holds it from the hand of God
.... The power of sovereigns being thus derived from the authority of
God, it acts as the arm and force of the justice that should be the soul of
government; and that justice alone has the natural claim to rule the minds and
hearts of men, for it is over these two faculties of men that justice should
reign.
***
According to these
principles, which are the natural foundations of the authority of those who
govern, their power must have two essential attributes: one, to make that
justice rule from which their power is entirely derived, and the other, to be
as absolute as the rule of that justice itself, which is to say, the rule of
God Himself Who is justice and Who wishes to reign through [princes] as He
wishes them to reign through Him. For this reason Scripture gives the name of
gods to those to whom God has entrusted the right of judging, which is the
first and most essential of all the functions of government....
Since the power of princes
thus comes to them from God, and since He gives it to them only as an
instrument of His providence and His rule over the states whose government He
delegates to them, it is clear that they should use this power in accordance
with the aims that divine providence and rule have established for them; and
that the material and visible manifestations of their authority should reflect
the operation of the will of God.... [The will of God] Whose rule they ought to
make visible through their power, should be the governing principle for the way
they use that power, since their power is the instrument [of the divine will]
and is entrusted to them only for that purpose.
This, without a doubt, is the
foundation and first principle of all the duties of sovereigns, namely to let
God Himself rule; that is, to govern according to His will which is nothing
other than justice. Thus it is the rule of justice which should be the glory
[of the rule] of princes.
***
Among the rights of the
sovereign, the first is the right to administer justice, the foundation of
public order, whether he exercises it himself as occasions arise or whether he
lets it be exercised by others whom he delegates for the purpose
....
***
This same right to enforce
the laws, and to maintain order in general by the administration of justice and
the deployment of sovereign power, gives the prince the right to use his
authority to enforce the laws of the Church, whose protector, conservator,
and defender [sic] he should be; so that by the aid of his authority,
religion rules all his subjects....
***
Among the rights that the
laws give the sovereign should be included [the right] to display all the signs
of grandeur and majesty necessary to make manifest the authority and dignity of
such wide-ranging and lofty power, and to impress veneration for it upon the
minds of all subjects. For although they should see in it the power of God Who
has established it and should revere it apart from any visible signs of
grandeur, nevertheless since God accompanies His own power with visible
splendor on earth and in the heavens as in a throne and a palace...
He permits that the power He
shares with sovereigns be proportionately enhanced by them in ways suitable for
arousing respect in the people. This can only be done by the splendor that
radiates from the magnificence of their palaces and the other visible signs of
grandeur that surround them, and whose use He Himself has given to the princes
who have ruled according to His spirit.
***
The first and most essential
of all the duties of those whom God raises to sovereign government is to
acknowledge this truth: that it is from God that they hold all their power
[sic], that it is His place they take, that it is through Him they should
reign, and that it is to Him they should look for the knowledge and wisdom
needed to master the art of governing. And it is these truths they should make
the principle of all their conduct and the foundation of all their duties.
***
The first result of these
principles is that sovereigns should know what God requires of them in their
station and how they should use the power He has given them. And it is from Him
they should learn it, by reading His law, whose study He has explicitly
prescribed for them, including what they should know in order to govern well.
***
These general obligations ...
encompass all the specific duties of those who hold sovereign power. For [these
obligations] cover everything that concerns the administration of justice, the
general policing of the state, public order, the repose of subjects, peace of
mind in families, vigilance over everything that can contribute to the common
good, the choice of able ministers who love justice and truth [sic], the
appointment of good men to the dignities and offices that the sovereign himself
needs to fill with persons known to him, the observance of regulations for
filling other offices with people not subject to his personal choice,
discretion in the use of severity or mercy in those cases where the rigor of
justice may be tempered, a wise distribution of benefices, rewards, exemptions,
privileges, and other favors; good administration of the public finances,
prudence in conducting relations with foreign states, and lastly everything
that can make government pleasing to good people, terrible to the wicked, and
worthy in all respects of the divine mandate to govern men, and of the use of a
power which, coming only from God, shares in His own Authority.
***
We may add as a last duty of
the sovereign, which follows from the first and includes all the others, that
although his power seems to place him above the law, no one having the right to
call him to account, nevertheless he should observe the laws as they may apply
to him. And he is obliged to do this not only in order to set a good example to
his subjects and make them love their duty, but because his sovereign power
does not exempt him from his own duty, and his station requires him to prefer
the general good of the state to his personal interests, and it is a glory for
him to look upon the general good as his own.
Source:
Jean Domat:
Le droit public, suite des lois
civiles dans leur ordre naturel, vol. 3,
Oeuvres completes, nouvelle edition revue corrigée,
ed. Joseph Remy (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1829), pp. 1-2,
15-2 1, 26-27, 35, 39, 40, 44-45. Translated by Ruth Kleinman
in Core Four Sourcebook
Niccolo Machiavelli, a diplomat in the pay of the Republic
of Florence, wrote The Prince in 1513 after the overthrow of the Republic
forced him into exile. It is widely regarded as one of the basic texts of
Western political science, and represents a basic change in the attitude and
image of government.
That Which
Concerns a Prince on the Subject of the Art of War
The Prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for
his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that
belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds
those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private
station to that rank. And, on the contrary, it is seen that when princes have
thought more of ease than of arms they have lost their states. And the first
cause of your losing it is to neglect this art; and what enables you to acquire
a state is to be master of the art. Francesco Sforza, though being martial,
from a private person became Duke of Milan; and the sons, through avoiding the
hardships and troubles of arms, from dukes became private persons. For among
other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised, and
this is one of those ignominies against which a prince ought to guard himself,
as is shown later on.
Concerning Things for
Which Men, and Especially Princes, are Blamed
It remains now to see what ought to be the rules of
conduct for a prince toward subject and friends. And as I know that many have
written on this point, I expect I shall be considered presumptuous in
mentioning it again, especially as in discussing it I shall depart from the
methods of other people. But it being my intention to write a thing which shall
be useful to him to apprehends it, it appears to me more appropriate to follow
up the real truth of a matter than the imagination of it; for many have pictured
republics and principalities which in fact have never been known or seen,
because how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live, that he who
neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than
his preservation; for a man who wishes to act entirely up to his professions of
virtue soon meets with what destroys him among so much that is evil.
Hence, it is necessary for a
prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it
or not according to necessity. Therefore, putting on one side imaginary things
concerning a prince, and discussing those which are real, I say that all men
when they are spoken of, and chiefly princes for being more highly placed, are
remarkable for some of those qualities which bring them either blame or praise;
and thus it is that one is reputed liberal, another miserly...; one is reputed
generous, one rapacious; one cruel, one compassionate; one faithless, another
faithful.... And I know that every one will confess that it would be most
praiseworthy in a prince to exhibit all the above qualities that are considered
good; but because they can neither be entirely possessed nor observed, for
human conditions do not permit it, it is necessary for him to be sufficiently prident that he may know how to avoid the reproach of those
vices which would lose him his state...
Concerning Cruelty and
Clemency, and Whether it is Better to be Loved than
Feared
Upon this a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared or
feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but,
because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be
feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because
this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle,
false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely;
they will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, as is said
above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against
you. And that prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected
other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by
payments, and not by nobility or greatness of mind, may indeed be earned, but
they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have
less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love
is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is
broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserved you by a
dread of punishment which never fails.
Nevertheless a prince ought
to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred;
because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will
always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects
and from their women.
From: Niccolo
Machiavelli, The Prince, ed. W. K.
Marriott.