March 24-25 1995 in Montpellier
PRESENTATION
The Restoration of the Stuart dynasty in 1660 marks the end of a
period of twenty years of constitutional experimentation in England. Since
the execution of Charles I, England had been 'a Commonwealth or Free
State', under the religious and military control of the Puritan party. The
figure of Oliver Cromwell dominates the period.
The figure of James Harrington is being rediscovered, after Hobbes,
Milton and Winstanley. He was neither a Puritan activist nor a political or
military actor of the Protectorate. Between 1656 and 1660, his writings
tried to find a credible alternative to the Puritan theocracy and
stratocracy of Cromwell and to the danger of a monarchical restoration. We
hope that our conference on his conception of the commonwealth will help
restore Harrington to his true position in the history of political theory.
Harrington's commonwealth rests on an equal constitution. All
members of the commonwealth have an equal right to civic participation, if
they reach the property qualifications required for voting. Upward and
downward social mobility and the rotation of offices prevent the
constitution of permanent political castes. Liberty of conscience and
worship is guaranteed and promoted by the State, which also maintains a
national Church. The religious causes of the English Revolution are thus
averted. The erection of a citizen army prevents the formation of political
and military factions, like those that pestered the Commonwealth and
Protectorate. The commonwealth would then be immune to military
dictatorship and religious intolerance.
For Harrington, the best constitution which a people can live under
is an equal commonwealth, yet the social and economic conditions required
for the establishment of such a regime are so restricted that the emergence
of a commonwealth may seem to proceed from mere chance. If the commonwealth
can exist only where and when the majority of the lands is in the hands of
the majority of the population, there must be an agrarian law to prevent
the return to an aristocracy or a monarchy, but the social mobility so
intensely desired by the author may be in danger at some stage in future
history. Some of the fundamental notions of Harrington's theory are well
known, but some such questions remain open to discussion, since the
philosophical foundations of the Harringtonian system have not been studied
in depth yet.
Harrington's thought resorts to sociological, economic, theological
and consitutional analyses. His thought raises problems in such fields as
utopianism or philosophy of history. The political thought and practices of
the 150 years following the Restoration of the Stuarts saw the American and
French revolutions develop republican regimes, which is why we intend to
evaluate Harrington's contribution to the elaboration of the modern concept
of commonwealth, as well as his position in the immediate context of the
XVIIth century.
Papers by:
James C Davis (East Anglia): Egalitarianism in
Harrington's equal commonwealth
GAJ Rogers (Keele): Harrington, Locke and Aristotle: the Natural
and the Unnatural in Commonwealth and Nature
Giuseppe Schiavone (Lecce, Italy): The New Political Science in
XVIIth-Century England: James Harrington
Pierre Lurbe (Caen): The Avatars of Harrington's Commonwealth: John
Toland
Georges Lamoine (Toulouse): Harrington and the Restoration
Harringtonians
Jean-Louis Breteau (Toulouse): Platonism in the thought of Harrington
Yves Charles Zarka (CNRS, Paris): Machiavelianism
Luc Borot (Montpellier): Form is the Life of the Commonwealth:
constitutionalism in Harrington's republican utopia
Some of the papers will be delivered in French, but the texts will
be provided, and translation help for the discussions will also be
available.
To register, send e-mail to Luc Borot <lb@alor.univ-montp3.fr>
Or write to Prof. Luc Borot
Universite Paul Valery
Route de Mende, BP 5043
34032 Montpellier (France)
Registration fees are 200 FF; make cheques payable to C.E.R.E.; hotel
reservation help can be provided on request.
********************************************************************
*e-mail: lb@alor.univ-montp3.fr - lb@bred.univ-montp3.fr
*Prof. Luc Borot - Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur la Renaissance Anglaise
*Universite Paul-Valery, Montpellier (France)
*phone: 33-67142448 - 33-67142449 - fax 33-67142465