`The Civilizing Process': Some Remarks on Elias's Social History

Abstract

The theory of the `civilizing process' claims to be based on a detailed empirical history. In this essay, an analysis is made of the basic premisses of Elias's interpretations of `warrior society' and the absolutist state. In the former case these are the propositions that the early mediaeval period was one of near-chaos, and that the mediaeval knight lived without significant contact with monetary relations. In the case of absolutism, Elias's model of the political structure of the court is founded on a theory of the monrach's manipulation of contests between bourgeoisie and aristocracy, and the belief that the aristocracy of this period, like their warrior predecessors, were largely divorced from any direct concern with `economic rationality'. All these propositions are contested, and alternative interpretations offered for some of the evidence Elias cites.