Reassessing the Political Theology of Johannes Althusius: A Forgotton Architect of Federalist Thought in the Age of Centralization
Abstract
Johannes Althusius (1563-1638) has been remained one of the best influential philosopher in European history of philosophy and also contributed in the western philosophy but his works faced many problems and remained as were underestimated. Johannes Althusius was very influential in the age of when there was shift in power, as power was supposed to be shifted to many authorities. Before that shift there was monarchial system as dated back to history which started from Roman Empire and remained applicable until the John Locke influential philosophy.
Johannes Althusius was a German philosopher and was the founder of federalist government structure and also got fame for the renowned work as his one of most influential and applicable work was" Politica Methodice Digesta (1603)". He was citizen of Germany also was jurist, Calvinist and as he was best political theorist of his time and the work, which put the foundation of pluralist government and updated federal system of governance through the work of "Consociatonal theory".
This article or this study determine the way Althusius worked and especially his ideas of covenantalism and decentralized authority are still able to shape the politics of modern world. As Althusius born when there was religious wars were ongoing in the region of Europe that’s why he put his ideas into reality and unpacked the system of government where the power will be not in one hand but in share community. As power will be in hands of family and community members. His time was full of chaos, conflict and the people were in consistent zone of uprising and conflicts and were demanding the absolute sovereignty for their own statehood. As Johannes was not given much respect and was unable to get attention of western world as compare to other philosopher like Hobbes and Locke.
As far this study we have applied multiple discipline for the sake of this evaluation as investigation of conceptual contexts, study of comparative federal system and the political theology of Althusius. This study and research can also be seen as in this research article through the lens of neo-Calvinist political theory and this theory also resemble with the contemporary system of governance and present model of federal system.
For the sake of this study we also adopt several case studies as investigatory examples to apply and for the analysis and for the sake of political theology of Althusius, which pose that how political ideas of Althusius have resemblance with modern political system. Case studies like Pakistan, European Union and Ethiopia, as in these region and countries there have been tough circumstances between the centralize and decentralize government as these are pluralist states that’s why we have put these region as case studies. For support of Althusius work his principle of subsidiarity has been very influential and also gives the authentic moral-ethical unit for these kind of region where states are in state of religious pluralism.
