2008-10-03

Politics and society in 19th century Europe October 3rd Modernity started with the French revolution and the Industrial Revolution. Early modernity is in connection with the Renaissance, the reformation of the Church (16th century), the Great Discoveries, a chain of wars. Framework number 1: The principle of balance of power (Westfalia) - one country threats with hegemony and the other countries form a coalition in order to prevent it. Pax Americana (to research further!) Framework number 2: The bipolar world during the Cold War is not an example of the principle of balance of power. Framework number 3: Post 89-91, the US has no rival, which causes a big change in international relationships, which results in the appearance of the two main actors: US and EU. The principle of balance of power -Started in the Renaissance/Great Discoveries period, more specifically The Italian Wars, when the Kingdom of France threatened to establish a hegemony over Italy, which resulted in an European alliance. Differences between medievality and modernity: -centralized states -authority is not questioned from above (as it was by Church during the Middle Ages) Authorities in the Middle Ages: the Universal Empire (The Holy Roman Empire), The Catholic Church and the Feudal Network. The Universal Empire idea emerged with Alexander the Great, who passes his legacy down to the Roman Empire, and then to the Byzantine Empire. In 800, Charles the Great is crowned by the Pope as emperor, thus creating the Holy Roman Empire, which ended in 1806 because of Napoleon and resulted in the Austrian Empire. After that, Russia claimed legitimacy over "the third Rome". Central idea before Alexander the Great: polis as a main actor (locus of freedom Aristotle and Plato). Aristotle states that human beings are humans who live in the polis, which requires intercourse and participation. The Stoic philosophical school states that the philosopher is superior, which results in less political implication, thus the monarch autority grows and the Universal Empire becomes a reality. So, the City of Rome evolved towards the idea of the Universal empire, empowered by Hellenism and Stoicism. The Church was unimplied in politics, but the conflict between Jesus and the Romans resulted in persecution, mainly because Christianism was a monotheist religion and contradicted the divine nature of the Emperor. In the Byzantine Empire, the relationship between the Church and the Empire was called symphonia, because the two entities fused in a metaphisical way, into one single entity. In the West, the Church has no institutional consistency, it is intermingled with the state. As a result, in the East, the state survived, whereas in the West, it crumbled down.

Saint Augustine on the City of God - a bit of an Aristotelian philosopher - Church has more power.