"Monarchists" and "Republicans" in the Western European Political and Legal Thought of the 17th Century

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the problem of theoretical approaches to monarchical and republican forms of government that were reflected in the works of representatives of Western European political thought of the 17th century. The seventeenth century is the century that opens the period of Modern Times. It was a turning point not only in the history of Western European civilization, but also in the history of philosophical knowledge and "positive" sciences, including in such a specific field as political thought, which developed at the intersection of philosophy and science. The political theory of the period, was able to rise to the realization of the objective of the imperfection of existing political institutions and give its recommendations for addressing the identified deficiencies, as far as it was possible in terms of initial imperfections is given to us in sensations of the world. The political thought of the historical period under consideration showed a lively theoretical polemic between the supporters of the monarchical and republican forms of government. The revolutionary situation developed in some of the advanced European states during the alarming seventeenth century made it possible to understand the advantages or disadvantages of the existing forms of government. It seems quite natural that the formation of the theoretical views of specific political thinkers or jurists was formed under the influence of the dominant ideology (or competing ideologies) of that time. Moreover, it should be noted that the monarchist or republican views of specific authors are not always theoretically well-reasoned, but are often based on the subjective preferences of thinkers. Thus, this paper highlights a rather ambiguous problem of the features of monarchical and republican forms of government in the political thought of the 17th century.