| Early Modern Democracy in the Grisons: Social Order and Political Language in a Swiss Mountain Canton, 1470 1620 Contributor(s): Head, Randolph C. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0521470862 ISBN-13: 9780521470865 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $118.75 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: January 1995 Annotation: The Freestate of the Three Leagues in the Grisons, a rural confederation in the Swiss Alps, was one of the most unusual political entities found in early modern Europe. In the sixteenth century, its inhabitants enjoyed popular sovereignty and remarkable local autonomy, and many of them insisted on political equality among citizens, and on political leaders' responsibilities to their communities. The author uses pamphlets and political documents to trace the Freestate's evolution, focusing on its institutional structure and on the political language used by its inhabitants. This language included radical statements about "democracy" and rule by the "common man". Even so, the Freestate participated in contemporary European political developments; but because it was different, it provides new perspectives on political ideas in sixteenth-century Europe. The Rhaetian Freestate was not typical, but rather represents a political culture distinct from both absolutism and later liberal ideas. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Europe - General - History | Western Europe - General - Political Science |
| Dewey: 321.809 |
| LCCN: 95150094 |
| Series: Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History |
| Physical Information: 1.14" H x 6.24" W x 9.4" (1.30 lbs) 308 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The Freestate of the Three Leagues in the Grisons, a rural confederation of peasant villages in the Swiss Alps, was one of the most unusual political entities found in early modern Europe. Its inhabitants enjoyed popular sovereignty and remarkable local autonomy, and many of them insisted on political equality among citizens, and on political leaders' responsibilities to their communities. The author uses pamphlets and political documents to trace the Freestate's evolution, focusing on its institutional structure and on the political language used by its in habitants. |