Political Science 2237E Lecture 1: jan5Machiavelli

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 2237E
• Professor: Richard Vande Wetering

Document Summary

New political structure that will become very important. Dominant by 1650 - central topic of all political science courses - the state, sovereign territorial. Feudalism: holy roman empire is very weak, hierarchical. Emperor then great lords then lesser lords then local lords then peasants. Each level has their own political resources - military. So they can change allegiance from one lord to another: 3 institutions in 1000 ad. Institution 1: feudal lords: personal allegiance to an individual, small, decentralized, feudal lords do not necessarily have a connection to a piece of land - can be sold etc. There may be three different courts, three sets of laws. Catalyst of change is the rise of change. Divided sovereignty and unclear jurisdiction creates problems for merchants, so they want to create new institutions. This new class has different needs than feudal lords. The city-state - small independent political units, focused on a large town (ex.