Constituent Power in Early Modern Political Philosophy

Filippo Del Lucchese is Associate Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Bologna and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg. His research interests are in the early modern period and the history of political thought and Marxism. He has been a Marie Curie fellow and holds degrees from the universities of Pisa and Paris IV (Sorbonne). He is the author of Conflict, Power and Multitude in Machiavelli and Spinoza (Continuum, 2009), The Political Philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli (EUP, 2015), and Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (EUP, 2019). He has published articles in journals such as History of Political Thought, European Journal of Political Theory, Dialogue, International Studies in Philosophy, and Differences. He has taught in France, Lebanon, the United States and in the UK.

Filippo del Lucchese has written a gem of a book in which he shows how early formulations of the concept of constituent power can be found already in the work of early modern thinkers such as Campanella, Lipsius and Bodin, and, moreover, why this inquiry is essential for understanding the modern foundations of political and constitutional authority.

• Introduction: The Revolutionary Paradigm of the Constituent Principle: the Arabian phoenix of Power between Politics and LawChapter 1: Étienne de La Boétie: The Paradox of Voluntary SubjectionChapter 2: The Architecture of Power in Bodin’s Theory: Unraveling the Roots of Constituent AuthorityChapter 3: The Stoic Foundations of Authority in Lipsius’ Political ThoughtChapter 4: Crafting Power from Utopia: Campanella’s Prophetic Foundation of Constituent AuthorityChapter 5: The Theological Underpinnings of Political Power in Suárez’s PhilosophyChapter 6: Hobbes on the Genesis of Sovereign Power: The Role of Constituent AuthorityConclusion: Philosophical Genealogies and Political Ontology: Theoretical Models of Constituent Power between Early Modernity and Contemporary TheoryBibliographyIndex