Societal Breakdown and the Rise of the Early Modern State in Europe : Memory of the Future

This book compares the social decomposition in late medieval Europe to the societal failure witnessed today in the modern West, arguing that in the case of emergencies, a strong despotic state is the only way to maintain basic order. Shlapentokh asserts that asocial behavior (criminality, promiscuity, and anti-sanitary actions, as well as other aspects of social, political, and communal breakdown) in both medieval France and the contemporary West is not a marginal occurrence but rather a mainstream phenomena, and one that can often be stopped by strong force as the only antidote to social chaos. While the majority of Western (and particularly Anglo-American) scholarship dictates that Jeffersonian democracy will spread over the world, Shlapentokh argues that instead it is the precepts of Hobbes and Carl Schmitt that will shape the world to come. This book compares the social decomposition in late medieval Europe to the societal failure witnessed today in the modern West, arguing that in the case of emergencies, a strong despotic state is the only way to maintain basic order. Shlapentokh asserts that asocial behavior (criminality, promiscuity, and anti-sanitary actions, as well as other aspects of social, political, and communal breakdown) in both medieval France and the contemporary West is not a marginal occurrence but rather a mainstream phenomena, and one that can often be stopped by strong force as the only antidote to social chaos. While the majority of Western (and particularly Anglo-American) scholarship dictates that Jeffersonian democracy will spread over the world, Shlapentokh argues that instead it is the precepts of Hobbes and Carl Schmitt that will shape the world to come.--Résumé de l'éditeur "This book compares the social decomposition in late medieval Europe to the societal failure witnessed today in the modern West, arguing that in the case of emergencies, a strong despotic state is the only way to maintain basic order. Shlapentokh asserts that asocial behavior (criminality, promiscuity, and anti-sanitary actions, as well as other aspects of social, political, and communal breakdown) in both medieval France and the contemporary West is not a marginal occurrence but rather a mainstream phenomena, and one that can often be stopped by strong force as the only antidote to social chaos. While the majority of Western (and particularly Anglo-American) scholarship dictates that Jeffersonian democracy will spread over the world, Shlapentokh argues that instead it is the precepts of Hobbes and Carl Schmitt that will shape the world to come."--Jacket This book compares the social decomposition in late medieval Europe to the societal failure witnessed today in the modern West, arguing that in the case of emergencies, a strong despotic state is the only way to maintain basic order. Shlapentokh asserts that asocial behavior (criminality, promiscuity, and anti-sanitary actions, as well as other aspects of social, political, and communal breakdown) in both medieval France and the contemporary West is not a marginal occurrence but rather a mainstream phenomenon, and one that can often be stopped by strong force as the only antidote to social chaos. While the majority of Western (and particularly Anglo-American) scholarship dictates that Jeffersonian democracy will spread over the world, Shlapentokh argues that instead it is the precepts of Hobbes and Carl Schmitt that will shape the world to come Introduction : revolution as disintegration; meltdown and the rise of the strong state; major theorists and framework of the work Background to the early modern era Crime in France in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Medical implications : asocial process and disease Persistent danger : asocial behavior in the sixteenth century Conclusion : the rise of the despotic government.