Jean Bodin

French political philosopher

Written by: The Editors of Encyclopdia Britannica
Jean BodinFrench political philosopher
Born

Died
1530

June 1596

Angers, France

Laon, France

Jean Bodin, (born 1530, Angers, Francedied June 1596, Laon), French political philosopher
whose exposition of the principles of stable government was widely influential in Europe at a
time when medieval systems were giving way to centralized states. He is widely credited with
introducing the concept ofsovereignty into legal and political thought.
In 1551 Bodin went to the University of Toulouse to study civil law. He remained there as a
student and later as a teacher until 1561, when he abandoned the teaching of law for its practice
and returned to Paris as avocat du roi (French: kings advocate) just as the civil wars between
Roman Catholics andHuguenots were beginning. In 1571 he entered the household of the kings
brother, Franois, duc dAlenon, as master of requests and councillor. He appeared only once on
the public scene, as deputy of the third estate for Vermandois at the Estates-General of Blois in
1576. His uninterested conduct on that occasion lost him royal favour. He opposed the projected
resumption of war on the Huguenots in favour of negotiation, and he also opposed the suggested
alienation, or sale, of royal domains by Henry III as damaging to the monarchy. When the duc
dAlenon died in 1583, Bodin retired to Laon asprocurateur to the presidial court. He remained
there until his death from the plague 13 years later.
Bodins principal writing, The Six Bookes of a Commonweale (1576), won him immediate fame
and was influential in western Europe into the 17th century. The bitter experience of civil war
and its attendant anarchy in France had turned Bodins attention to the problem of how to secure
order and authority. Bodin thought that the secret lay in recognition of the sovereignty of
the state and argued that the distinctive mark of the state is supreme power. This power is unique;
absolute, in that no limits of time or competence can be placed upon it; and self-subsisting, in
that it does not depend for its validity on the consent of the subject. Bodin assumed that
governments command by divine right because government is instituted by providence for the
well-being of humanity. Government consists essentially of the power to command, as expressed
in the making of laws. In a well-ordered state, this power is exercised subject to the principles of
divine and natural law; in other words, the Ten Commandmentsare enforced, and certain
fundamental rights, chiefly liberty and property, are extended to those governed. But should
these conditions be violated, the sovereign still commands and may not be resisted by his
subjects, whose whole duty is obedience to their ruler. Bodin distinguished only three types of
political systemsmonarchy, aristocracy, and democracyaccording to whether sovereign
power rests in one person, in a minority, or in a majority. Bodin himself preferred a monarchy
that was kept informed of the peoples needs by a parliament or representative assembly.