Power and Legitimacy – The works of Guglielmo Ferrero and Bertrand de Jouvenel
2021; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês
10.2139/ssrn.4175541
ISSN1556-5068
Autores Tópico(s)Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought
ResumoThis article addresses the nature and extent of State power, as well as the principles that, at any given moment, serve as the basis for its control by a determinate group of individuals. The analysis is presented as a review of the arguments put forward by Guglielmo Ferrero (1942), and Bertrand de Jouvenel (1945), two authors who lived through some of the most troubled decades of the Western world. While Ferrero relies mainly on what he believes to be the “principles of legitimacy" to explain the reciprocal acceptance between governments and their subjects, de Jouvenel focuses especially on dissecting the nature of State power, in order to better understand its drive towards permanent expansion and the annihilation of all opposing forces. The article concludes with several considerations that the author believes should be taken into account by those who, in modern times, wish to preserve individual liberties against State encroachment.
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