Organisation et représentation de la société d'Ancien Régime en Europe, c. 1976

Abstract

SUMMARY Tatsunori Isomi presents here a text given to him by the leading founder of the ICHRPI/CIHAE, Émile Lousse, and intended to serve as an introduction to a Japanese translation of a series of lectures given by Lousse at Coimbra and published in Portuguese in 1960. Although his Japanese translation still awaits a publisher, Tatsunori Isomi feels that Lousse's introduction ought now to be published and to reach a wider public as it distils the essence of a great historian's work and contains valuable insights for the study of the role of representative and parliamentary institutions. The text amounts to a fundamental analysis of the organization and structure of the ancien régime in Europe. Throughout the text, Émile Lousse focuses on terminology, pointing out in particular the historical value of generally untranslatable German definitions, such as das Ständewesen, provided by Otto Hintze and others. He sees representation as only one aspect of the societies of the ancien régime, though one which reflects the pyramidal organization and structure of these societies. Having surveyed the impact of scholastic thought, of the chivalric orders of the Romans, of the Germanic assemblies, he concludes that one must also look beyond this range of sources in the search for the origins of feudal and corporative structures, to human nature itself. His hope was that a Japanese translation of his work might lead to a comparative study of these structures in Japan and Europe.